Six Impossible Things By Breakfast
by ImaginaryHomeforFriends
Summary: Set during The Impossible Astronaut AU - Rose Tyler receives a TARDIS blue envelope...
1. Chapter 1

**Written for a prompt by breathless_dawn on Then There's Us (Livejournal).**

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><p>Rose Tyler finds herself pulled from a dreamless, deep sleep by a beeping noise. She finds herself extremely aggravated right away because she hasn't had a good nights rest in what seems like ages. She could probably pinpoint exactly the last time she slept well but that would mean delving into her past, and she's still not quite ready to do that.<p>

"What's bleeping? What do I 'ave that bleeps?" Rose grunts out, her accent deepening and becoming almost incomprehensible, while she shoves messy bedridden hair out of her face. "Stop that right now, I don't 'ave anything that should bleep!" Rose yells into the empty room as she rummages around in her nightstand. Her phone? No, that's stuck on an obnoxious chirping sound that she can't seem to get rid of. Her alarm clock? No, she tossed that clear across the room where it promptly broke into several pieces. _So what in the bloody hell was bleeping?_

The blonde stumbles out of bed, only very nearly avoiding smashing her head on the floor when her left leg got caught up in her bed sheets.

Rose Tyler was now thoroughly livid, and yet the noise continued on like it had no idea that when she found the source of it she was going to smash it into bits.

Though if Rose hadn't of fallen she wouldn't have noticed that the bleeping noise was coming from under her bed, in a box that was shoved far into the furthest corner. She laid flat on her stomach and pushed herself under her bed, reaching towards the bright blue box that held a lifetime of memories. Her anger had quickly, nearly instantaneously had turned into dread.

"No, no, no this isn't what I think it is." Rose muttered darkly to herself as she sat up and dumped the contents of the box onto her floor, shoving things out of the way without really looking at them. If she looked she would have saw a simple key hanging from a silver chain, a pink and white phone that looked like it had seen better days, several papers and photographs- suddenly she had the source of the noise in her hands.

She scrambled for her phone, a plain black thing, and hit number 1 on her speed dial while twisting the seemingly innocent bracelet in her hand. A small red light on the bracelet was flashing in time with the noise.

"Rose, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Rose's mums concerned voice asked at once. It was, after all, past 3 in the morning.

"I'm sorry mum, but I need to speak to Pete." Rose hadn't grown comfortable with calling this worlds Pete dad yet. He was just so different from the Pete her mum had told her stories about, and even more different from the Pete who she had met at a wedding so many years ago. Luckily he didn't find this offensive.

"Rose?" Pete's clear voice broke though a bit of Rose's panic. Everything was going to be fine now. Even though she kept repeating that she couldn't quite get herself to believe it. She was currently hopping around her room, one hand on her phone and the other still holding the bracelet as she tried to shove some jeans on.

"The bracelet- the dimensional cannon, it's making the noise it does when it's recharging itself." Rose managed to get her jeans on properly and she blindly grabbed a jumper off the ground and pulled it over her shirt.

"How is that possible?" Rose could hear Pete moving, probably getting ready like she was to get to Torchwood as soon as they could. Rose was already shoving her feet into her trainers and running out of her room, through her small flat and out the door. "I thought you disabled it." Disabled was putting it lightly, and it wasn't her who had done it but Pete knew how sensitive she still was about the real person who did it.

"It was! There's no possible way for this to be working unless someone could somehow rebuild the majority of the machine and get the necessary battery cells to make it run." Pete knew how very impossible that was. They had barely managed to do it themselves, the entire world had chipped in for it. "I'm heading to Torchwood right now."

"I'll meet you there in fifteen." They both hung up as Rose ran down the street. Some might call her a bit obsessive. Alright, nearly everyone who met Rose Tyler called her obsessive, at least when it came to Torchwood. Rose couldn't help it though, all she had left in this world was Torchwood. If she didn't throw herself into her work she'd probably be a sobbing wreck. But of course someone who is obsessed with their work only lives three blocks away. She could have gotten even closer but she liked to run the three blocks.

"Good evening Miss Tyler." The security guy called out as Rose ran past. He didn't seem fazed by her sudden appearance, actually quite the opposite. It wasn't really a night without Rose Tyler rushing into the Torchwood building like someone was chasing her. The guard didn't mind, and he had stopped trying to get her to sign in a long time ago. He knew enough that if Rose Tyler was running that usually meant the world was in trouble, and there was no one better suited to setting things right than the blonde woman.

Rose ran into the elevator, pulling out her keycard as she ran before sliding it through and pushing the button for the basement. She tapped her foot impatiently before the doors opened again and she was once more running.

Running past bits of spaceships and whole ones. Past huge guns, barrels, boxes, equipment, more weapons, other things Torchwood simply had no idea what was, and suddenly she came to a white door. She swiped her card again, punching in a code, and then putting her hand onto the scanner.

The door swooshed open and she stepped inside, letting the door close behind her as she walked down aisle after aisle of neatly kept boxes. At the end of all the aisles there was a six feet radius of room where the dimensional cannon rested. At least where the platform and controls for the dimensional cannon rested.

When Rose had last saw it everything had been neatly piled into the corner and nothing had changed. It even had a fine layer of dust over it. Rose looked down at the bracelet, wondering if it was somehow malfunctioning. Then she remembered that there were no power cells in it for it to be working. It was just a chunky piece of junk now, but then why was it bleeping so insistently?

Rose walked over to the dimensional cannon and her eyes caught something on the control panel, a blue envelope was resting on it. Rose frowned as she picked it up carefully and turned it around in her hands, examining it. The front had her name with the Torchwood address, and around the address it was surrounded by stamps. She flipped it around and on it was a number zero in silver writing. She tore it open, her heart pounding as she pulled out a card.

**22/04/2011**

** 16:30 MDT**

** 37" O'38"N 110" 14' 34"W **

Rose raised an eye brow before hearing a loud beep that made her jump. She looked down at the control panel, everything that was written on the card was now programmed into the small computer. The panel beeped once, the bracelet in her hand echoing it in a smaller tone and Rose barely had time to let out a gasp as the light turned from red to green.

Rose would have screamed but every atom that made her up was being pulled apart, transferring through the void and then reappearing and reforming in another place.

Her knees promptly gave out and she was left gasping for breath. She just barely managed to keep down the contents of her stomach. When she had been jumping from one universe to the other over a year go they had given her medication and shots to counteract the effects of the canon. Even then it had been difficult, it had taken her over six months to gain a tolerance for it but she hadn't been prepared and she felt very ill.

None of Rose's senses were working, and all she could do was hope she was somewhere safe as she tried to pull herself together. Sound was the first to come back, which wasn't helpful because besides the small pop from her ears, there was nothing to hear. Sight came back next, which didn't help either because she was suddenly very blinded by the bright light. She blinked back tears as she tried to get her eyes to adjust while the rest of her senses slowly came back to her.

The desert. She was in the middle of the bleeding desert.

Rose turned herself in a 360 but there was only desert everywhere she looked, for as far as she could see. She took a deep breath and tried not to panic as she picked a direction and started to walk.

Rose clenched her empty hands before flexing them. She tried not to think about the lost envelope, or more importantly, the dimensional cannon. The shock of suddenly being transported made her release both items, and now both were probably lost within the void. She just felt very lucky that when she let go of the bracelet she wasn't also stuck in the void.

She walked up a hill, with the sun beating down on her she had quickly grown very hot, and sweaty. Rose pulled off her jumper and tied it around her waist while trying to gain some footing in the sand that shifted and slipped beneath her trainers.

Over the hill was a long, winding road which was of some relief but what was more so of one was the car parked on the side of the road. There was a tall, skinny man with half his body in the backseat window, his legs swinging feebly in the air before he righted himself and stood up straight. In his hand was a cowboy hat. He turned it around in his hands as Rose made her way towards him, trying to remember all the moves she had learned in her self defense classes provided by Torchwood. She didn't want to hurt him, he actually looked supremely harmless in his tweed jacket and bowtie but she knew better than to judge anyone based on looks alone.

After thoroughly examining the hat from all angels he finally very carefully placed the hat on his head, and she was close enough now to see the extremely pleased look cross his young features. He shifted from foot to foot as he pushed his coat aside and pulled on his suspenders, wincing and rubbing his chest as they snapped back against him.

"Excuse me." Rose called out, her voice slightly hoarse from the combination of jumping dimensions and walking in the desert for what seemed like forever, but was probably only twenty minutes.

The man turned, a large grin on his face that quickly vanished as he took in the sight of her. Rose wasn't insulted at the look, she knew what a mess she probably looked. She had forgotten to comb or even pull her hair into a pony tail, so it was wild and tousled by sleep. She was also covered in a layer of sweat and sand, her shirt sticking uncomfortably to her. Not to mention she had just walked out of the middle of the desert. She's surprised he didn't get into his car and drive away as fast as he could.

"My name is Rose Tyler, I'm a bit- well I guess you could say lost." She gave him a grin, hoping it would put him more at ease as she came to stand five feet away from him. From this distance she could see how young he really was, probably just in his mid twenties and he looked like he belonged lecturing a college class, not in the middle of a desert with a cherry red car behind him.

"Lost?" His voice broke on the word and he cleared his throat and patted his pockets while simultaneously rocking on his heels. She tried not to remember another man who could never quite hold still for any small amount of time.

"Yes, I know how odd this seems, but if you've got a mobile on you?" She glanced around. "Though there's probably no signal out here, where is here by the way?" Rose tried to give him another disarming grin but it only seemed to make him balk further.

Just then a big school bus pulled up. Rose raised an eye brow, glancing left and right but she still seemed to be in the middle of a desert. So why, exactly, was the middle of the desert getting so many visitors? Perhaps this wasn't her old world, the one she was born on. Maybe she was in a different one, or maybe this wasn't Earth at all.

"Thanks!" A female voice called out and Rose saw two sets of feet appear from the gap under the bus. "This is it, yeah? The right place?" The voice was distinctly Scottish. So definitely Earth then.

"Uh- no where? Middle of? Yeah, this is it." A male, British voice answered back as the bus slowly pulled away, revealing two people with packs on their backs, both facing the opposite direction. The redhead glanced around then turned, a huge smile overtaking her young face as her eyes fell upon the man in a cowboy hat and tweed.

"Doctor!" The girl yelled out, running across the road to embrace him. His arms came around her as Rose felt her stomach drop. No, it couldn't be. Could it? Oh well that would make so much sense though. The dimensional cannon starts up without a battery to run it, mysterious blue envelope, the middle of a desert, and a shiny red car. Oh that is just so him, despite looking completely different. "So someone's been a busy boy, eh?" The girl asked as she adjusted his bowtie and the other man walked over to them.

"Hey, nice hat." The man said by way of greeting as the other man, the Doctor, glanced over at Rose and cleared his throat.

"It's a Stetson. I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool." He said, as if on automatic. He opened his mouth, his attention directed at Rose before a loud bang rang throughout the desert and the Stetson was knocked from his hat as everyone ducked down.

Everyone's attention was pulled over to a woman with curly hair and a large gun. She blew on the gun as Rose's hand automatically went to her own sidearm, but she had left her gun in another world. "Hello sweetie." She put the gun away with a grin.

"Alright!" The Doctor called out, clasping his hands together before motioning with them. "River, Amy, Rory I am sorry but first things first." He turned to Rose, who had up to that point forgotten to feel left out from the group and had just been amused and very alarmed that the woman had shot at the Doctor and everyone acted like it was an every day occurrence. She didn't think either of the regenerations she knew would handle being shot at like that.

"Hello." Rose said with a grin. The Doctor took a step closer to her, his floppy brown hair falling into one eye before he pushed it away. Her own hair was sticking to her sweaty skin but she made no move to push it away.

"Does everyone else see her?" The Doctor asked his three other companions.

"Don't be daft, of course we see her." The Scottish redhead scoffed, placing her hands on her hips. "Who's she then?"

"So some clever rouse then?" The Doctor asked, his hand hovering over her face for a minute before he quickly pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at her. Rose raised her eye brow at the new sonic, it was larger and glowed green instead of the normal blue she had been use to but he used the same flourishing movements as always. "No, not plastic then."

"Are you done yet?" Rose asked with amusement. She wasn't offended or surprised by his lack of belief that she was here. She was, after all, suppose to be stuck in another universe. She actually partly believed she might have breathed in some alien hallucinogen, it wouldn't be the first time. Though she decided to just go along with it, for now at least. As far as hallucinations went, this one wasn't half bad.

"Rose Tyler it is quite impossible for you to be here!" The Doctor said but pulled her to him in a bony, and somewhat awkward hug. It took a moment for them both to adjust. This new regeneration was a bit shorter, wider but somehow bonier. He had grown use to hugging the Scottish girl no doubt, who was quite a bit taller than Rose but soon they both found a comfortable position. He was cool as usual, even in a jacket in the middle of the desert the Doctor never seemed to get hot, and he never did something as human as sweat. Rose suddenly felt a bit self conscious about her own sweaty self.

"Doctor, did you just sniff me?" Rose asked, laughter lacing her voice. At least he hadn't licked her. She was quite glad he got over his oral fixation. Every time he had licked something new she had been a bit disgusted and worried that he would catch something. He had assured her that his superior time lord biology prevented that but even superior beings such as Time Lords got sick.

"Well, yes." The Doctor answered, not embarrassed in the least as he pulled back to arms length, his hands holding her upper arms in a tight grip. "You smell like the void, and the other universe, a bit different then this one you see. Of course you also smell like Rose, a bit like sunshine and star dust and cherries. You always smelled like cherries. If you're a copy you're a very good one." The Doctor rambled, causing Rose's grin to widen and her tongue to stick out between her teeth. The Doctor had never described her smell before, and she found she was quite pleased that he hadn't mentioned she stunk. No, actually he had been quite flattering, though he didn't seem to notice that he had actually given her a good compliment.

"Doctor! What is going on?" The redhead asked in a frustrated tone.

"Yeah, I'm a bit confused too." The British man said in a much softer tone than the girl he arrived with.

"Doctor, this isn't suppose to happen, she can't be here." The woman with curly hair said in a stern tone.

"Shut up all of you!" The Doctor ordered, not unkindly but none of them paid him any mind. "River is quite right you know, you shouldn't be here. Impossible that is."

"Sometimes I've believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Rose answered back, her tongue sticking out between her teeth once more. It had been one of t heir favorite sayings when they had been travelling together. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this happy.

"So, only five more to go then?" The Doctor grinned back before shaking his head and looking around, clasping his hands together again. "Well if you're here I doubt _he_ could have stayed behind, how did you get here again? You haven't gone and done something stupid and dangerous like tear a hole in both universes just to pop in for a quick visit, yeah?" Despite his serious words he still gave her a mischievous look, like even if she had torn a hole in two universes he wouldn't be angry. Actually if Rose didn't know him better she'd say he was flirting with her. Though Rose couldn't be positive, she didn't know this Doctor as well as the other two.

"Well this is all your fault Doctor, if the universes have holes in them than that's your responsibility." Rose corrected.

"What? What have I done?" The Doctor looked as if he was running through a mental list of everything he had done and Rose interrupted him, because he had lived over 900 years and it would be a very long list.

"You sent me an envelope!" Rose said, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Like this one?" The Scottish girl asked helpfully over the Doctors shoulder as she pulled out her own blue envelope.

"Right, except the number was different, mine had zero written on it." Rose said with a nod. "Bit insulting, that is." She said, referring to the zero.

"No! Well yes, but no, that's not- it wasn't, I was just feeling a bit nostalgic when I wrote it, and zero is not insulting! It comes before one, and it's a good solid number, nothing beats zero, but I tossed it out in the void when I was- oh but that explains that. Though not entirely, who would have expected it to actually get to you?" The Doctor said, mostly to himself as he motioned with his hands and paced in short steps, his boots kicking up dust and sand.

"The Tardis, she's a smart girl." Rose offered with a slight grin, her eyes darting around to look for the big blue box that she had missed nearly as much as the Doctor himself.

"Rose Tyler-" The Doctor said her name, then repeated it as if he liked the sound of it. "Rose Tyler, sounds quite good coming from this mouth, yeah? No wait- don't get off track." He said like she was the one getting him off topic. "I need to know what you know but we don't really have the time for it all to be explained-" The Doctor pulled up the sleeve of his tweed jacket and looked at the gold watch on his wrist in confirmation.

"Do what you need to do." Rose said instantly, her hands out to show how open she was. The Doctor stopped fidgeting, becoming completely still for the first time and looking at her with entirely too old eyes that didn't quite fit in his young face.

"This won't be pleasant." The Doctor warned.

"Ever been dimensional jumping? Can't be any worse." Rose said with a shrug and watched as some strong emotion flickered across the Doctors face before it disappeared to quickly for her to figure out just what it was.

"Doctor, this is a horrible idea, please-" The curly haired woman said desperately, now standing very close to the Doctor. The other two remained quiet, glancing between the woman, the Doctor, and Rose with confusion.

"Thank you River," The Doctor said shortly before placing his hands on both sides of Rose's face, his fingers pushing slightly against her temples and skull. His hands were cool even with the desert heat and it was a welcome relief on her hot face. Rose remembered that this was the same position that she had seen the Doctor get into with Reinette, and she pulled herself back mentally so she wouldn't see any of the Doctors thoughts. His secrets were his own, and she had no right to them if he didn't want to come out and say them himself. Rose felt more than saw the Doctor smile as he heard this thought.

Suddenly Rose was remembering a bright red bicycle for Christmas. Then a presumably drunken man hidden half in shadows of an alley as he told her she'd have a really great year. She remembered telling her mate Shireen about this encounter, grinning and laughing as Shireen said _some drunk guy said I looked like the queen, should I believe him too then?_ She remembered a store basement, a cool hand in hers as she trusted a stranger and ran behind him. The memories flew by like a blur as the Doctor searched for the right one.

Suddenly came the memories she was most worried about. Holding a familiar but different hand on a cold beach while watching a blue box disappear. Crying into a shoulder on the trip home. Watching a skinny man in a suit playing with her little brother, Tony. Two months of memories and then he was gone. The memory of asking her mum and Pete if they'd seen the Doctor, and them looking worriedly at her. Nobody remembered the human version of the Doctor, and she remembered feeling like she was losing her mind. She remembered the next completely lonely two years as she buried herself in her work and tried to push all thoughts of the Doctor away.

Then came the memories of the blue envelope, Torchwood, and the dimensional cannon. She felt the Doctor withdraw from her head and she suddenly felt very dizzy. The Doctor caught her before she fell to the ground. His arms were surprisingly strong around her and he held her with something close to desperation as he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"Oh Rose," He said softly, only loud enough for her to hear as he half carried her to the car, pulling the door open and setting her in the passenger seat before reaching over and turning on the car, also turning on the air conditioning full blast.

"Got what you needed then?" Rose tried to ask lightly as the cool air hit her. It was a shocking relief from the dry pounding heat of the desert.

"There was a period where I didn't exist, I didn't think it'd effect _him_." The Doctor said, his green eyes so very sad as he kneeled down and looked up at Rose. Rose flicked his floppy hair off his forehead and gave him a smile.

"Saving us poor apes again?"

"Well, technically the whole universe, the Tardis sort of exploded and wiped out life across the universe and the only way was to sort of explode myself." The Doctor patted his knees before the redhead cleared her throat, loudly and very clearly. "Oh right! Well Rose Tyler, you should formally meet the Ponds, Amy and Rory!" He motioned to the two and they both smiled at her. "And River Song." The Doctor nodded to the older woman who was frowning still. "This makes things a bit more difficult, because you will not just sit back and do what I tell you, will you Rose Tyler? The girl who's crossed dimensions to muck up my plans. And they were such nice plans too! Well not exactly nice, probably not, you lot won't- but that's beside the point."

"Doctor, I'm telling you this isn't how this is suppose to go-"

"No? Because time can't be unwritten? Rewritten just to be unwritten and rewritten differently again. Times constantly changing and I thought you, River Song-" The Doctor put emphasis on her name as he spun around to look at her. "Would understand that more so than anyone." River's eyes went a bit wide before the Doctor turned back around.

"I'm sorry, but who's she again?" Amy asked, sounding a lot more pleasant than River but ten times more annoyed.

"Rose Tyler, didn't I say that? Actually I believe I've said it quite a few times now, haven't you been paying attention Pond?" The Doctor said with a slight tsk.

"I think she means more than my name Doctor," Rose said with a laugh. "I'm- well sort of like you, a companion, a past companion that is. Kind of got myself stuck in another dimension." Rose explained, deliberately leaving out the part where the Doctor left her in the other world the last time they saw each other. A look of deep sadness crossed the Doctors youngest face yet but he quickly hid it behind a false smile.

"Another dimension?" Amy asked.

"Alright! No use standing around you lot, everyone in the car, you can chit chat while I drive. How's everyone feel about a good old American shake? That's where we are, by the way, Rose. You asked before, yeah? We're in America, Death Valley to be exact. Well not exact exactly, you have the coordination's of where exactly we are and Death Valley is quite a big place. What are you waiting for? Everyone in!" The Doctor hopped around to the drivers seat before closing the door behind him. Amy, Rory, and River all piled into the back as Rose closed her own door.

Mostly Amy and Rose filled the silence. Amy told Rose the story of how she met the Doctor, and how many years she waited. Rose poked fun of the Doctors horrible timing, telling Amy of how he promised her one day had passed but really she had been missing a year. They traded stories on how the Doctor has messed up, until he got offended and yelled at them both.

Rose noted how pleased the Doctor seemed to be that she and Amy seemed to get along so well. It was very different how her old Doctor who wore a trench coat felt when Rose and Sarah Jane Smith had gotten along. It had seemed then that he had nearly been disappointed that they were no longer fighting over him. Rose tried very hard to ignore the looks that seemed to pass between River and the Doctor.

"Okay, Rose out, everyone else stay in the car." The Doctor said as they pulled up to a small diner in a small town. The Doctor got out of the car in a way that Rose already thought of as purely Doctor. He seemed like he was a baby giraffe, all long limbs and not quite sure how to work them all properly yet. She found it strangely endearing.

"You gonna leave me here, yeah?" Rose tried to make light of it but seemed to fall just short of it.

"No, well yes, but there's something I need to do and I'm just- I know you won't go along with it. I can see the time lines Rose, you know that, and there's two of them in my head right now. One where I didn't chuck that letter out in the vortex and you stayed in that other world, and then there's this one we're currently going on." The Doctor explained in a rapid fashion. Rose was surprised how much she had missed this, the Doctor explaining things to her quickly and expecting her to follow. She was satisfied that she understood most of what he said. "I'm a bit older now, but a younger version of myself is going to show up here soon, so you won't be alone for long. He's going to figure out what happened."

"Doctor, I don't want to go back to that other universe." Rose said quickly without actually meaning to. She felt like a hand was slowly squeezing her heart but she forced herself to choke out the next words. "You saw- he's gone, and I can't- I'm just so alone there. There's my mum, but she has Pete and Tony and it was always- I always choose you Doctor." The Doctor, this new one with deep set green eyes and floppy hair who dressed like an English professor studied her with an intensity that Rose felt down to her very soul. He then grinned suddenly at her.

"Well Rose Tyler, why don't you just tell me that?" He tapped his head. "I have a feeling he'll like it." Suddenly Rose was gathered up into a hug that ended as abruptly as it had started, and just like that the hand that was squeezing her heart let go and she could breath. "I have to go now, or I might just put this off for another 100 years and steal you away for myself." Rose felt her cheeks heaten, and she was suddenly glad for the heat because there's no way to tell the sunburn from the blush. "Oh Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth, the girl who-" He paused and grinned. "Well, can't just put you into one category, you've done so much. You're going to do so much, you brilliant girl you." He gave her one final grin before hurrying back into the car and then pulling out, kicking up dust and sand as he drove away.

Rose watched the red car drive away, waving at Amy who was waving through the window. She then took in a deep breath, holding it for a while before slowing letting it out as she pulled a hand through her hair. She winced at how damp it was from sweat, and how her hand snagged on several knots. What a good impression she must have made after not seeing him for so long. Though he didn't seem to mind her appearance at all. She had questioned his flirting at first, but now she was nearly positive he had definitely been flirting with her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an all too familiar grinding sound. She turned to watch as a blue box started to appear in the parking lot of the diner. The door flew open and a now familiar gawky man tumbled out, glancing around as he looked down at a blue envelope. His eyes suddenly looked up then met hers.

"Hello." Rose greeted, not able to hide her grin.

"Oh," The Doctor looked down at the envelope before taking a step closer to her. "Rose Tyler what-"

"It's a bit of a long story," Rose said, then grinned suddenly, tongue peeking out between her teeth. "Right then, before you get me back in that box, shakes it is, and you can pay." She tilted her head to the diner.

"No money." The Doctor answered back automatically, a tiny smile beginning to grow on his face.

"What sort of date are you? Come on then tight wad, shakes on me." The Doctor let out a laugh before sweeping Rose up in his arms. Once again the hug was a bit awkward at first, the Doctor had to readjust himself but he finally found the right position and swung the blonde right off her feet as she laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

A good old American shake was put off for a shower and a change of clothes in the TARDIS. The Doctor was nearly bouncing on his feet as he opened the door and walked inside, turning back with a flourish and open arms as Rose walked in slowly.

It had been such a long time Rose nearly felt like crying, but she held back and took a deep breath, she tried to get her eyes to settle on just one thing but the inside of the TARDIS was so very different.

"I didn't know she could change," Rose admitted as she took the couple steps up and looked down at the glass beneath her feet. There was a several foot drop and the ground beneath was riddled with huge holes.

"Yes, well my regeneration went a little sideways- as they happen to do- and I, the energy cast off from the regeneration, tore the girl apart." The Doctor explained, hooking his thumbs into his suspenders before letting them fall to his sides and leaning a hip against the console. Rose watched his jerky movements with a small smile before turning her eyes to the old girl. "Do you want her to change back?" The Doctor asked after a moment of silence as he watched her with ancient green eyes.

"Could she?" Rose asked, tucking her hands behind her back as she walked around the console, noting that even all the buttons and levers had changed. No wonder the Doctor was a horrible driver, if the console changed every time he regenerated then he'd have to relearn everything. She looked up and spun around slowly, noting the ceiling and the four staircases. Before, it had just been one long corridor that eventually broke off into separate ones.

"Yes." Rose looked back at the Doctor with surprise, she hadn't been expecting that. "Each one is saved and held in her memory banks, the old console room is three levels below and to the left- no a little to the right."

"I like her, this version fits the new new new Doctor." Rose said finally, letting out a surprised sound when the Doctor swept her up in a hug she hadn't been expecting because her eyes were diverted elsewhere.

"Come along Rose Tyler, I'll show you to your room- then we can discuss how exactly it is you got here." The Doctor added the last part as if just remembering that she had been locked away in another universe and in order to get to this one she would have had to punch a sizable hole through the walls. He didn't seem too concerned that all of reality could be collapsing around the TARDIS right now, he just bounded down the hallway with Rose following after him.

"I got here the same way you did Doctor, that envelope." Rose said, weighing the consequences of telling him his future self had been the one to send it. "And it didn't feel like the other times I used the dimensional cannon, it was like- nearly like falling." The Doctor stopped for a moment, ringing his hands. "The other times it felt like a tugging, like-" Rose grabbed the Doctors arm and yanked him across the hall, making him let out a surprised yelp that had them both laughing.

"I think, Rose Tyler, you might have fallen through a hole. They should have been sealed of course, but sometimes when two universes are as close as this one and Pete's world was they press together and it creates momentary pockets. They naturally just heal themselves up and the pockets disappear, but if you stand in the right spot at the right time with the right equipment-"

"Someone can just fall through?" Rose asked, her eye brows shooting up. "Does that happen very often?"

"Do you know who Amelia Earhart is?" The Doctor asked, looking smug and grinning at her.

"Of course I- no, you're kidding me, she fell through one of these pockets into another universe?" At the Doctors nod Rose laughed.

"I tried looking for them- my younger regeneration that is but each pocket has different dimensions, some of them so small only a string of hair could get through, and they are in constant flux, it is difficult-" The Doctors words were cut off when he suddenly found a Rose Tyler hugging him.

"You were trying to find a way back to me." Rose said softly as the Doctors arms came around her slowly before he was tightly holding her against him. "Right then, where's my room because even I can smell myself now." The Doctor let the blonde woman go before presenting a door to her. Rose opened it and let out a small gasp.

"It's the same as before, if you don't like it we could always close the door and the TARDIS will change it to something you would like more. You're taste has probably changed after the past couple years-" Rose laughed at the rambling alien, standing on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before stepping into her old room. It was exactly the same, even her strewn about clothes and souvenirs from her trips were where she left them.

"I love it as much as the first time I saw it, now I'll only be a mo'." Rose quickly went through her drawers, grabbing clean clothes without looking at them too closely. The Doctor had been right, her preference had changed but she enjoyed slipping back into her 19 year old selves place, if just for a moment. She walked into the connecting bathroom and closed the door behind her, letting the Doctor decide what he wanted to do. Her first Doctor had gone off to work on the TARDIS when she had to do something so very mundane and human like shower or sleep. For the brief period Jack was on board he would sometimes slip into her room when she was showering and tidy up, which had never failed to shock and make Rose laugh, the always-flirting Jack Harkness cleaning up after her. Jack would ask her questions while she combed her hair and did her make up, mostly questions about the Doctor, but sometimes about her and what the 21st century was like, it was one century he hadn't spent that much time in. Her second Doctor would tinker around in the console room before coming into her room and collapsing on her bed, feet hanging off the edge, trench coat thrown over the chair to her vanity, while he read or closed his eyes for the time it took her to shower. Then explain things like thermodynamics and why the sky was more green than blue on New Earth.

Rose felt like the Doctor needed some time to think things over, because she certainly did. She turned the shower on, stripped out of her dirty clothes with a cringe, and stepped into the shower with a sigh of relief. The water felt more soothing on her sun burnt skin than stinging, and she sent a silent thanks to the TARDIS, integrating some sort of healing liquid into the water so she wouldn't have to deal with the pain and aggravation of being sun burnt all over.

Rose lathered her hair and thought about her family and friends. She didn't have many friends since her Doctor disappeared. She had gone a little crazy when she realized that no one remembered him. But her ranting about the Doctor hadn't made many people want to befriend her, add to the fact that she was the Vitex heiress (something she never got use to) and Pete was the leader of Torchwood, people tended to avoid her and when they did have to interact with her they were overtly professional and polite.

She did have a couple friends though. Mickey, Jake, and Penny. Penny ended up being an alien who's family had gotten stranded on Earth, she could change forms when she wanted to and she was absolutely terrified of Torchwood. Rose had found her and promised her nothing would happen to her, what would Torchwood want with a nice alien girl who ran an equally nice little ice cream shoppe? After that Penny and her had become friends. Penny knew all the stories about Rose and the Doctor, and Rose would regret not being able to say goodbye to her. Rose had destroyed all evidence of Penny's family crash to Earth though, and made her an air tight background, so she knew the girl would be safe. Mickey and Jake would understand.

Her mum would be livid. But her mum also had Pete, Tony and little Ryan, so she wasn't alone, she would never be alone again. One day Pete had gone over to the New Colonies of America to see how each of the Torchwoods there was performing, and he came home with Ryan. A tiny little one year old and that was that. Rose's mum loved Ryan just as much as her two biological children, and she never questioned where the boy came from. Rose did, but her father only got a dark look and refused to speak. It was two days after Ryan's arrival that she heard about one of the Torchwoods, Torchwood Four in New Mexico, getting shut down.

Rose got out of the shower, feeling extremely better. She towel dried herself pulling on her clean clothes, a pair of dark jeans and a blue t-shirt, before twisting her hair up into a turban with the towel and stepping out of the bathroom.

The Doctor hastily put down a book onto her bedside table. Rose tried to give him a look of outrage at having been caught with his hands on her younger self's journal but her face broke out into a grin.

"You can read it, nothing scandalous in there." Rose stepped over to her vanity, grabbing a comb and pulling the turban down. "Actually, don't read it, your ego's big enough, and I can't exactly remember all the praise I wrote about you in it."

"Praise?" The Doctor preened but he made no move to grab the journal.

"Not that hard to impress a shop girl from London." Rose said, tongue in teeth as she pulled the comb through uncooperative hair.

"Rose Tyler, you were nearly impossible to impress!" The Doctor exclaimed before coming over to her and waving away her hands, leaving the comb firmly stuck in the knots in her hair. He used slim fingers to work it out before spinning her around so she had her back to him, and was laughing, before working the comb through her hair with much more patience than she had.

"Nah, I just pretended not to be impressed, your previous two selves were just full of themselves." Rose said with a grin at the Doctors reflection in the mirror. He had a look of concentration as he made his way slowly through the knotted mess her hair had become. "Can you still do braids?" Rose asked after a moment of silence.

"I don't know, we'll find out." The Doctor put the comb down before his fingers separated her hair, which was longer and a softer shade of blonde than before, and he narrowed his eyes, willing his brain to remember. "Aha!" The Doctor said successfully as he twisted Rose's hair into a long French braid, making her laugh.

"Well done, you. Now for some food." On the way out the Doctor had Rose explain, in strenuous detail, exactly what happened in the parallel universe.

"You boxed up the dimensional cannon?" The Doctor asked, now sitting in a booth across from Rose and waiting for their shakes and chips, or French fries, to be made.

"Not just boxed it up, I tore it apart." Rose explained, slowly and methodically tearing apart a napkin. "Torchwood wanted to continue to use it, aim it in a different direction, make other people compatible for it but it was too dangerous. It was mostly alien technology. We got it to work through guess work and luck. And the Doctor-" Rose swallowed the lump in her throat, taking a moment before continuing on. "He thought the only reason it worked on us is because we had already passed through the void before. The cannon worked best with me, probably because of all the travelin', Mickey didn't have as much trouble as other people but every jump meant a full day of bed rest for him. I could be up and running for another jump in about four hours.

"Sorry, that's not important is it? We couldn't let them go blindly punching holes through our world and other worlds, and we definitely couldn't let them make holes into the void now that it was full of Daleks and Cybermen. So I took the energy source and dropped it into the deepest part of the ocean, and I hid the watch that let us more or less control the jumping in my flat. Mickey, Jake, Pete, and the Doctor all took key components out of the machine too and got rid of them or hid them away." Rose explained, stopping when the waitress brought over their drinks and foods.

The Doctor padded his pockets, digging through them and pulling out a few objects without much thought as he thought over Rose's words. Rose, for her part, left him to his thoughts and started to eat. Using the canon had always famished her. She would always eat when she got back and then fall asleep for a couple hours, dead to the world. Rose was a little worried she'd need to sleep right after this, what with so much going on, she didn't want to sleep through any of it.

"Doctor are you actually looking for something or just tryin' to impress me with your 'bigger on the inside' pockets?" Rose asked, laughter lacing her voice as she touched the familiar psychic paper.

"I thought I had my fizzy straw, but I must have left it in the TARDIS." The Doctor started shoving things back into his pockets, but he left the psychic paper on the table as he pushed himself out of the booth, knocking his hip into the table and nearly tripping over his own feet as he righted himself. "You'll be alright?"

"Of course, you need your fizzy straw, quite important, that." Rose said, grinning up at the Doctor.

"Cheeky girl." The Doctor gave her a manic smile before spinning around and making his way out of the restaurant.

Rose continued to eat her food, getting up to order another thing of chips and a burger because she really was quite hungry, before sliding back into the booth and trying her shake. Rose looked up as the bell above the door jingled and she was only slightly surprised to see Amy walk in, followed by River and Rory. Rose was just about to call over to them, hidden away in the corner booth they had yet to notice her, but then she saw the look on Amy's face. Complete devastation, and Rose's words got caught up in her throat.

"So, where's one?" River was asking, holding out the blue envelopes in her hands as Rory looked over her shoulder.

"What, you think he invited someone else?" Rory asked, his brows drawn together as Amy leaned heavily against the booth, her two friends walking past her. Rose saw the growing look on Amy's face and knew this was not good. Rose knew that look, felt it herself when her Doctor had disappeared from the other universe. This was not good at all.

"Well he must have." River assured. "He planned all of this, to the last detail." Amy mumbled something but Rose was too far away to hear. River continued talking like she hadn't heard Amy either. "He was up to something. Space, 1969, what did he mean?" Rose inhaled sharply as Amy turned her grief stricken face to her two friends, a sharp anger brewing there that made Rose's heart hurt in sympathy and memory.

"You're still talking but it doesn't matter." Amy said, her voice strangely void of any emotion. Rory and River turned towards the redhead finally.

"Hey, it mattered to him." Rory said, taking the couple steps to come face to face with his wife.

"So it matters to us." River finished and Rose nearly interjected there, but she felt this wasn't her place. She had only just met them, and even if she felt like that was the completely wrong thing to say to the Scottish girl maybe they knew better? Amy whispered something, but Rose was too far away to hear. "But he still needs us. I know," River stepped closer to Amy, blocking out Rose's view of the younger girls face. "Amy, I know-" And then River was talking too quietly for Rose to overhear. Rory turned away, looking like he was forcing himself to be strong but was close to the breaking point himself. His eyes hit hers and his face paled as Rose sat up straighter. What had happened?

Rory's eyes then fell to the blue envelope the Doctor had left on the table.

"Look." Everyone's attention was pulled to her. River's face tightened but she stepped over, grabbing the envelope.

"Is this yours?" River asked, grabbing the envelope and staring at the front.

"No, I lost mine in the void, that one has a one on it." Rose was just about the explain that it was the Doctor's, that he had just stepped out for a mo' and whatever had happened he could help fix but she didn't get a chance.

"The Doctor knew he was going to his death," River said, turning away from Rose and addressing her two friends. Rose felt like she couldn't comprehend what was happening. To his death? But he had been sitting across from her, pulling out marbles and electronic gizmos out of his never ending pockets just a few minutes ago. "So he sent out messages. When you know it's the end, who do you call?"

"Your friends, people you trust." Rory offered up, his eyes meeting Rose's for the briefest of moments before flickering away.

"Number one, who did the Doctor trust the most?" River asked, holding up the envelope. As if on cue the Doctor walked through the door, head down, straw in mouth and then he looked up. Everyone turned in shock to stare at him. He grinned around the straw, looking like someone had brought him his favorite ice cream, and pointed at all of them. "This is cold, even by your standards, this is cold." River said, her voice even but her face was still pale. Rose made a move to stand up, explain or at least try to but the Doctor started to speak.

"Or hello as people use to say," The Doctor gave Rose a grin, looking like he was about to introduce her but noticed the shocked look on her face.

"Doctor?" Amy asked, pulling the Doctor's attention away from Rose and he held out his straw.

"Just popped out to get my special straw, it adds more fizz." The Doctor said, grinning and looking baffled at all the shocked looks around him. Amy stepped over to him slightly, her face drawn and pale, but her steps sure. She walked around him, touching his bow tie and starting to smile while tears swam in her eyes.

"You're okay," The Doctor spun around with her, looking more confused as time passed. "How can you be okay?" Amy asked, sounding furious.

"Of course I'm okay, I'm always okay," The Doctor pulled Amy into a hug, his eyes looking for answers from his other companions, who were still silent. "I'm the King of okay, oh that's a rubbish title, forget that title." He gave Amy's back a little pat before opening his arms wide. "Rory the Roman! That's a good title, hello Rory!" He hugged a confused looking Rory, who patted the Doctor's back lightly, looking over his shoulder at River.

"And Doctor River Song, oh you bad, bad girl. What trouble do you got for me this time?" Rose winced, knowing that was precisely the wrong thing to say. River slapped him and Rose pushed herself out of the booth in shock. River might give her mum a run for her money on best slap. "Okay, I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet."

"Yes, it is." River nodded and even though Rose couldn't see her face she could hear how furious the other woman was.

"Good, looking forward to it." The Doctor mumbled, not meeting Rivers eyes as he looked around at the others.

"I don't understand, how can you be here?" Rory asked, poking the Doctor in the chest and watching as he rocked lightly back on his heels.

"I was invited," The Doctor said, sounding a bit put-out now. He took the envelope from River and looked down at it. "Date, map reference, same as you lot I assume otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence." The Doctor tossed down the envelope on the table, glancing up at Rose just long enough for her to see the anger brewing in his green eyes before he looked away. "Have you all met Rose Tyler? Been quite rude of you to ignore her up until now, Rose Tyler this is-"

"Amy, ask him what age he is." River interjected, earning a cross look from the Doctor.

"That's a bit personal." The Doctor said, sticking his straw in his mouth as Rory rubbed his face.

"Tell her what age you are." River demanded.

"Nine hundred and nine."

"But you said-" Amy started but River cut her off.

"So where does that leave us, huh? Jim the Fish?" River asked, sounding frantic. "Have we done Jim the Fish yet?" The Doctor took turns looking at his three new companions, a smile tilting the corner of his lips but Rose knew that smile even if his face was not yet familiar. She had seen that smile before from every incarnation, even the one who was stuck in the other universe from her had given that smile. It was not a good smile

"Who's Jim the Fish?" The Doctor asked, for all the world looking and sounding merely amused, but Rose knew he was anything but.

"I don't understand." Amy said, turning to look at Rose as if she knew the answer.

"Yeah, you do," Rory said, stepping towards his wife.

"I don't, what are we all doing here?" The Doctor asked, letting some of his anger slip into his voice. Didn't like being ignored, him. His companions all looked at him and River started, then stopped, then started again.

"We've been recruited, something to do with space." River said, giving pointed looks to Amy and Rory. The Doctor was frowning now, no longer hiding his displeasure behind small smiles and raised eye brows. He turned away from them, beginning to walk away with his straw in his mouth. "1969 and a man called Canton Everett Delaware the third." The Doctor was still walking away, but at a slower pace.

"Recruited by who?" The Doctor asked, voice low and dangerous.

"Someone who trusts you more than anyone else in the universe," River answered, making the Doctor slowly turn back to them. His eyes hit Rose's, tilting his head and after he looked away Rose realized he was looking to see if she was in on whatever the other three were. She wasn't. Rose felt probably the most lost out of all of them. She had pieced together some things though. She believed the Doctor who had dropped her off here in the first place, the older one, had died. Rory, Amy, and River had witnessed it. So had a man named Canton, and for some reason they weren't telling the Doctor any of this.

"And who's that?" The Doctor asked, voice still that terrible tone.

"Spoilers," River said softly.

The Doctor ushered them back into the TARDIS, letting them all in first and putting his hand on Rose's back as she entered last.

"You alright?" The Doctor asked softly.

"Always alright, me. Bit confused but that's kind of normal being around you." Rose answered, trying to lighten the mood. He gave her a half smile but that was all.

"I'll get us some answers." The Doctor said in a stony voice that left no room for arguments. Rose was glad she was involved in the 'us' but she was worried about his methods of getting those answers.

After her first Doctor regenerated into her second one, and then being left on a beach with a meta-crisis version of her second Doctor, Rose had learned that the Doctor was simply always the Doctor. Yes, things changed. His entire look, his choice in clothing, the way he acted, walked, and how he interacted with people. They all changed, but there was this underlining feeling that he was simply just always The Doctor. Rose had already accepted this new man as the Doctor, the new new new Doctor and his new companions, but his methods were different than she was use to. He seemed so angry, which was a surprise to Rose. Her first Doctor had been angry, but not like this. Not this low, seething rage that this new Doctor had.

Amy leaned against the railings as Rory stood on one side of the console, with the Doctor on the other and River behind him. Rose sat on the jump seat, watching the Doctor jump around the console in his usual manic manner. Amy walked off, heading to the stairs that led under the console. River followed after her shortly, leaving a slightly more confused Doctor but that never stopped him from speaking.

"Rory, is everybody cross with me for some reason?" The Doctor asked, sounding suspiciously like a kicked puppy. Poor Rory, looking caught, stared down the Doctor.

"I'll find out," Rory said, looking away from the Doctors gaze before shuffling down the stairs. The Doctor slowly turned a dial on the monitor, looking torn and so utterly sad that Rose could no longer sit down and watch idly.

Rose hopped up, knocking her shoulder against his arm and giving him a smile. Neither of her Doctors, no matter the moods they were in, could resist a smile. This Doctor was no exception, he returned her smile before hitting a few more buttons on the console.

"Was the fizzy straw worth it?" Rose asked cheekily, making the Doctor miss a step and he spun around, shooting her an accusing look.

"Are you going to leave me out too, Rose Tyler?" The Doctor asked, stepping back towards her and cupping her face gently, putting his face on level with hers to look into her eyes. Rose sighed, pushing her face slightly into his right hand.

"I'm afraid I probably know less than you but I can tell you what I do know." Rose offered up. Maybe it would mess up the time stream of things but as far as she could tell, this was not a fixed point in time. If it was then, she wouldn't have been there. The older Doctor even said so, he saw two time lines branching out from one another, one where he didn't toss the envelope out into the void and another where he did. Knowing something that already happened did not change them from happening because it already occurred. The older Doctor would die and Amy, Rory, and River would be there to witness it while the younger Doctor braided Rose's hair.

"You've already met the Ponds and River Song, haven't you?" The Doctor asked, the thumb on his right hand caressing her cheek softly.

"Earlier today." Rose confirmed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Rose had always been a very touchy person, always hugging people but after the Doctor disappeared, when people thought she was crazy, she didn't get much physical contact. Even Mickey stopped hugging her, and Rose hadn't realized how much she missed the easy comfort the Doctor always provided.

"You didn't seem too surprised when I appeared, even knew it was me with this face." The Doctor said, his forehead now resting against hers.

"New new new Doctor." Rose confirmed.

"Actually new new new new new new new new new new new Doctor." Rose laughed and opened her eyes, as the Doctor drew back, a real smile lifting his features. "Eleven, this is my eleventh body." The Doctor seemed to come to a decision and he went back to hopping around the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, sounding a bit concerned.

"It's alright Rose, everything is going to be just fine." The Doctor said, which usually meant everything was going to be quite the opposite. Before she could say anything more though he ran to the edge of the glass floor, sliding to his knees and throwing half his body over the edge.

"I'm being extremely clever up here and there's only Rose to stand around looking impressed!" Rose rolled her eyes and sat back down on the jumper seat. "What's the point in having you all?" The Doctor pulled himself back up, rather gracelessly, and went back to the console.

"Well done, you. Very mature. How old are you again? Five? Maybe six tops?" Rose asked, grinning and earning a light smack against her leg.

"Time isn't a straight line," The Doctor started saying as his three companions trudged up the stairs. "It's all bumpy wumpy, there's loads of boring stuff like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons but now and then there are Saturdays. Big temporal tipping points when anything's possible, TARDIS can't resist them, like a moth to a flame. She loves a party so I give her 1969, and NASA, because that's space in the 60's, and Canton Everett Delaware the Third and this is where she's pointing." The Doctor monologue, all the while spinning around the console and pushing buttons and pulling levers, sending a smile to Amy or a wink to Rose.

"Washington DC, April 8, 1969. So why haven't we landed?" Amy asked, looking up at the monitor with everyone else. Rose pulled her feet up on the jumper seat, making sure the bottoms of her shoes were clean first, before wrapping her arms around her and watching the scene play out with fascination.

"Because that's not where we are going," The Doctor said, turning back to his companions.

"Well, where are we going?" Rory asked, which was exactly what the Doctor wanted.

"Home! Well, you two are, off you pop, and make babies. And you Doctor Song, back to prison." The Doctor said touching River's face but it was not in the most endearing way. Rose's legs dropped back down in surprise. Had the Doctor really said River Song was supposed to be in prison? "And me? 'Bout time I took one Rose Tyler to Barcelona, the planet, not the city, though the city is quite nice too. What do you say Rose Tyler, the planet first and then a quick visit to the city? Could do." The Doctor flicked a couple more switches before plopping, rather heavily, into another jumper seat. He crossed his arms and hid his suddenly angry features behind his hand. Rose felt the need to go to him but she stayed seated, this was something he and his companions had to work through without her interference.

"What?" He asked, angry and fed up as his companions came to stand in front of him. "A mysterious summons? You think I'm just going to go? Who sent those messages? I know you know. I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of doing that." Rose leaned forward on the chair, a bit angry at the Doctor for his behavior but she decided to give him another moment before she stopped being the good little companion and gave him a piece of her mind.

"You're going to have to trust us, this time." River said.

"Trust you? Sure. But, first of all, Doctor Song, just one thing." The Doctor stood up, getting close to River, invading her personal space and Rose stood up too, her arms crossing defensively over her chest for a woman who clearly didn't even like her but Rose still wouldn't let the Doctor bully someone around. "Who are you? You're someone from my future, guessing that, but who?" He looked at his companions, purposefully not meeting Rose's angry glare. "Okay. Why are you in prison? Who did you kill? Hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?"

"Oi, Doctor, that's enough, I think you've made your point loud and clear." Rose said, filing away the fact that River Song was a killer in the back of her mind. The Doctor was a killer, he had told her several times of that fact. And Rose had killed, to protect her family and planet, the autons and daleks and cybermen, but still she had killed. She had no room to judge, so she filed that away and glared at the Doctor.

The Doctor nearly snapped at Rose, telling her to stay out of it, but he stopped himself. Even the TARDIS gave a low whirling sound, a warning. Rose could never stand by and watch people get hurt, she had even stood in the way of him shooting a Dalek once. And she was older now, and she had experienced more hurt than a woman her age should have, but she didn't let that make her cold and withdrawn like he did. The Doctor was proud of his girl, his defender of Earth, defender of universes actually. She kept getting knocked down and came right back, as compassionate and wonderful as always.

"Trust me," Amy said, realizing now was her chance to intervene since the Doctor's face had softened at Rose's words. It had surprised Amy, she had expected the Doctor to get angry, but he hadn't.

"Okay." The Doctor said softly, turning away from River, and heading towards Amy. Rose saw Rory hold himself up straighter, as if preparing himself to come between his wife and the Doctor if need be.

"You have to do this and you can't ask why." Amy said.

"Are you being threatened? Is someone making you say that?" The Doctor glanced quickly at Rory, assessing his two companions.

"No."

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Swear to me. Swear to me on something that matters." There was a long moment of silence as the Doctor and Amy stared at each other, Amy searching her mind for something while the Doctor attempted to figure out who would be threatening his companions. Finally Amy smiled.

"Fish fingers and custard." They both smiled at each other, the Doctors a little harder and smaller than the readhead's but he finally gave a little nod.

"My life in your hands, Amelia Pond." The Doctor smiled, more sadly this time, glancing down at said hands before turning away slowly. Amy looked ready to cry, ready to break at any moment. Rory touched her shoulder, lending comfort.

Rose had a feeling things were about to get even more tricky from here on out.

I want to give a big thanks to **Rosalea12**, who did an absolutely fantastic and wonderful job of editing this chapter! Fixing my mistakes is a difficult task and she did it so brilliantly! Also, big thanks for those who reviewed and follow and read this story!


	3. Chapter 3

Rose watched the Doctor and River interact, surprised by their lightness even after the conversation they just had. They were talking about Canton Everett Delaware the Third, an American FBI agent who had a problem with authority, who Rose could see the Doctor liked quite a lot already. They moved onto Richard Nixon, a former president of the United States and apparently not a very good one by the Doctors grumbling. A bit of America's presidency had been covered when Rose was in school but she couldn't even remember a handful of them, let alone what they were famous for.

Rose couldn't figure out the Doctor and River Songs relationship. Rose had pegged Amy for the best friend, with a bit of a crush on the Doctor though she was in love with Rory. Rory was here because of Amy, he cared about the Doctor and River, that much was obvious, but Rose could tell Rory would be more comfortable at home. But River Song? A killer in prison, apparently an archaeologist too, which the Doctor didn't seem so fond of. A woman with a gun in a holster on her side. A woman with fantastic hair, too many secrets, and a dislike for Rose.

The blonde wasn't oblivious. She was 26 now, and had matured greatly from the 19 year old who jumped into a mad mans box. Rose knew River didn't like her, but she figured it was a Sarah Jane Smith type situation. Rose reckoned they could work it out, sharing the Doctor, Rose didn't mind quite as much as she did when she was younger. But Rose was quickly getting the feeling this was not going to end with hugs like Sarah Jane had. Rose just couldn't understand why.

She wasn't use to being disliked, and yeah it rubbed her the wrong way. River Song didn't even know her, didn't even make an attempt to know her and she hated Rose. Rose wanted to be as dismissive to the older woman as she was to Rose but that just wasn't in Rose. She couldn't be calloused and mean for long periods of time, yeah she could give a good glare but it wasn't in her to hold grudges and stay angry. It was exhausting, that, and she had let go of her anger a long time ago.

A loud, harsh noise cut through Rose's musing. She winced and looked around the TARDIS, wondering what the Doctor had done now. River flipped a switch and the noise stopped, to which everyone was grateful.

"Did you do something?" The Doctor asked, looking for all the world like the young man his body portrayed.

"No, just watching." River said, shaking her head. The Doctor continued to look at them.

"Putting the outer shield on invisible. I haven't done this in a while." The Doctor went back to flipping switches, shooting a grin over at Rose who was still seated in the jumper seat, grinning widely at the scene playing out before her. "Big drain on the power."

"You can turn the TARDIS invisible?" Rory asked, astonished. Rose was a bit surprised too. The Doctor looked extremely pleased with himself. Bright lights came on, nearly blinding them all but River pushed a button.

"Uh, did you touch something?" The Doctor asked, appearing in front of River and looking at her accusingly again.

"Just admiring your skills, sweetie." River said, shaking her head. Rose thought it a shame that River disliked her so much because Rose begrudgingly liked the other woman quite a bit.

"Good. You might learn something." Rose scoffed, earning her a look and a pointed finger in her direction. "Okay. Now I can't- the scanner, it doesn't work when we're cloaked. Just give us a mo'." The Doctor took off running towards the door, his three companions rushing to follow him. "Woah, woah, woah. You lot, wait a moment. We're in the middle of the most powerful city, in the most powerful country on Earth. Let's take it slow." Rose was laughing silently from her seat and the Doctor turned his attention to her. "Rose Tyler, been a bit of time since you done this, want to have the pleasure?"

"Probably for the best, walk out there and it's more likely to be tribal men with poisonous darts than anywhere near Washington DC." Rose said, hoping up from the jump seat and giving the Doctor a grin.

"Rose Tyler you wound me." The Doctor slipped out the door, closely followed by Rose. Both stumbled, shocked into a room.

There was a man behind a large desk, and another man sitting in a chair across from it. Both of them had their backs to Rose and the Doctor. Rose's eyes looked down, her head tilting at the frankly ugly symbol on the carpet. Who put a big old bird on- oh no.

Rose grabbed The Doctors sleeve, and his hand found hers a moment later as he patted the TARDIS silently with his free hand. The two men were listening to a recorded phone call. Rose thought it'd be a good idea to slip back into the TARDIS right about now but the Doctor was stepping forward, pulling her along and away from the invisible TARDIS.

When the recording identified himself as President Nixon Rose had a hard time restraining her gasp. The Doctor was still creeping forward, which seemed like the opposite thing that they should do but Rose was too curious for her own good. A child's voice came over the recording, sounding afraid and Rose stood up straighter, catching the Doctors eye. Oh the Doctor could never resist when there was a scared child involved.

The Doctor let go of Rose's hand to pull something out of his pocket and if the child, a little girl despite what President Nixon had said about it being a boy, hadn't sounded so scared Rose would have laughed at his exaggerated movements. The call ended as the Doctor scribbled something into the notebook he had pulled out. He was still writing when the President turned around and noticed them. Rose let out a small noise as the man sitting down suddenly stood up. The Doctor looked up, motioning for them to go on and Rose nearly groaned.

Both men continued staring at the Doctor, as the man in question slowly looked up to them.

"Oh. Hello." The Doctor said cheerfully. "Bad moment. Oh, look, this is the oval office. I was looking for the uh-" The Doctor was holding Rose's hand again, tugging her back in the direction of the cloaked TARDIS. Rose, for her part, tried to look as unimidiating as possible. "uh- oblong room." The Doctor continued, knocking into a lamp that Rose caught right before he fell to the ground. "I- we- we will just be off, shall we?" The Doctor turned quickly and slammed directly into the TARDIS, letting go of Rose's hand at the last moment so he wouldn't pull her down when he fell.

"Doctor-" Despite the situation Rose was having a hard time not laughing. The Doctor pulled himself up, holding his face and giving her an appalled look.

"Don't worry, it always does that when it's cloak." The Doctor said, which Rose obviously did not buy for a moment. The man, the one who was certainly not the President, tackled the Doctor to the floor.

"Oh, that's not necessary." Rose said, backing up as the Doctors long legs flailed. Men started to piling into the room, yelling about lock down. A lot of men with guns. Rose didn't make any sudden movements and she kept her arms away from her sides. More men piled on top of the Doctor, a few surrounding her but none of them took the step closer to subdue her. "Not necessary, look, I surrender, no need to tackle me." The Doctor was yelling something to River but Rose was too busy trying to calm the men around her. They were obviously confused and not trained for this type of situation. 1969, probably not very appropriate to throw a woman to the ground and rough handle her in front of the president.

The TARDIS suddenly appeared, shocking the men around her. Rose slipped out of the semi circle they had surrounded her in and stepped over to a corner. No one was paying her any attention.

Suddenly the Doctor was sitting at the Presidents desk, feet up on it and looking extremely pleased with himself. Rose felt a bit ill and she seemed to black out for a moment before coming to again, not surprised to find the Doctor monologuing and all the men with guns pointing them directly at him.

"You think you can just shoot me?" The Doctor asked, looking entirely too amused for the current situation.

"They're Americans!" River yelled as she stepped out of the TARDIS, Amy and Rory following behind and Rose saw the Doctor suddenly look fearful as the guns were turned towards his companions. Rose looked to her right to see the man who had initially tackled the Doctor to the floor staring at her and Rose gave him a little smile.

"Don't shoot!" The Doctor called out, hands up and suddenly shooting up from the chair. "Definitely no shooting!"

"Nobody shoot us either. Very much not in need of getting shot, look we've got our hands up." Rory said and Rose grinned, knowing she liked the young man for a reason.

Rose leaned back against the wall, feeling another wave of sickness come over her. Blacking out for another moment or two and looking up groggily to see the man from before, the only one who paid her any mind, standing a bit closer, his eye brows drawn together in a hint of concern. Also the only man not holding a gun besides the President. Actually no one was holding any guns.

Everyone was spread out with maps and Rose looked at them all in confusion. How much time had she lost and what happened to her? She was still standing up right so that's good, would have been a bit embarrassing to faint while guns were about. She was not a fainter in any type of situation.

"You okay?" Canton asked, though Rose wasn't sure how she who he was. He had a deep raspy voice and Rose felt herself already liking him.

"Yeah, just needed a mo'." Rose answered, forcing cheer into her voice because she was a bit scared. Losing time was normal when it came to the dimensional cannon, time sickness they called it. Of course they just made it up and Rose had never experienced it herself. Because time sickness was just the start of a whole list of bad symptoms that ultimately led to a very long, drawn out, painful death.

"Why Florida?" Canton asked, turning his attention back to the Doctor.

"Because that's where NASA is, she mentioned a spaceman. NASA's where the spaceman lives." The Doctor spread the map out across the President's desk, looking over at Rose with worry but Rose waved him off, going to sit next to Rory who handed her a map. "Also, there's another lead I'm following."

"A spaceman, like the one we saw at the lake." Amy whispered furiously to River.

"Maybe." River looked over at The Doctor than gave a pointed look to Rose. "Probably." River moved away from Rose and Rose took a deep breath and held it. Rose nudged Rory when Amy's face suddenly went pale. Rory looked up, his eyes resting on the blonde before following her line of vision to his wife. He stood up suddenly.

"I remember." Amy whispered.

"Amy, what do you remember?" Rory asked, standing in front of her. Rose looked to the open door but there was no one there. Rose could have sworn Amy had been looking at something.

"I don't know. I just-" Amy suddenly looked sick.

"Amy, what's wrong?" Rory asked, worry seeping into his voice and face.

"Amy?" River even sounded worried.

"You alright?" The Doctor asked, blundering in and looking down at Rose's map, leaning so close his hair tickled her nose.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine." Amy said, clearing her throat and waving off Rory. "I'm just feeling a little sick." She walked over to one of the men in suits.

"Rose, what's that?" Rose looked down, realizing she had been tracing a street with her finger. She followed the path, finding the name easily enough and then another road that intercepted with it.

"You've five minutes are up." Canton said. The Doctors eyes met Rose's, searching for a moment.

"Yeah, and where's my fez?" The Doctor kissed Rose's forehead gently, before taking the map from her and placing it across the presidents desk with a grand flourish. Then the phone started to ring "Here, the only place in the United States that call could be coming from." He pointed at the map and Rose stood up as Amy walked in.

"You alright?" Rose asked quietly, Amy gave her a quick smile and a nod before they all went over to see what the Doctor was pointing out.

"See? Obvious when you think about it, clever girl Rose Tyler found it in about two seconds of searching." The Doctor said, standing up straight and puffing out his chest slightly like a proud peacock. Rose laughed and nudged him with her shoulder and he beamed down at her.

"You, sir, are a genius." Canton said, leaning over the map and following the streets.

"It's a hobby." The Doctor said proudly, rubbing his hands together.

"You're so full of it." Rose said, earning another grin from the Doctor.

"Mr. President, answer the phone." Canton implored. Rose was a little surprised when the president did as he was told without question.

"Hello? This is President Nixon." The Doctor watched the exchange, his face lost all of his humor as the little girl started speaking, scared.

"It's here! The spaceman's here! It's going to get me! It's going to eat me!" Rose's hand found the Doctors and he gripped it tightly, meshing the bones together in her smaller hand for one quick moment before loosening his grip, caressing his thumb over her hand in an apology that wasn't needed in the first place.

"There's no time for a SWAT team, lets go!" The Doctor let go of Rose's hand to swing on his coat, nearly hitting Canton with his flourishing movements. "Mr. President, tell her help's on the way. Canton, on no account follow me into this box." River, Amy and Rory all went into the box and the Doctor lightly pushed Rose to follow. "And close the door behind you!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Canton yelled, absolutely following them into the box and closing the door behind him. Rose leaned against the railing, grinning widely as Canton came suddenly to a stop.

"Jefferson isn't a girl's name, it's not her name either, but Jefferson – Adams – Hamilton, River!" The Doctor was spinning around the TARDIS console, talking a mile a minute. Amy and River were following him closely behind but Rory and Rose had stayed by the door, watching Canton carefully. Rory looked like he was waiting for the other man to start yelling or pass out but Rose was grinning ear to ear.

"Surnames of three of America's founding fathers." River answered back, which was impressive, Rose wasn't sure if she could name three of the presidents. Rose decided to ignore them for now to concentrate on Canton.

"Are you okay, coping?" Rory asked at the same time Rose asked "You alright there mate?" Canton turned around slowly, his eyes looking upwards.

"It's bigger on the inside." Canton said slowly, his eyes still taking in everything. Rory looked over at Rose and Rose shrugged, like she hadn't had the same reaction.

"Ah, you get use to it." Rory said, nodding and sounding thoroughly unimpressed. Rose grinned at Rory, yes she was quite liking the British man. The Doctor was suddenly in front of Canton, pulling Amy along.

"It's- uh-" Canton stumbled over his words, shaking his hand at the Doctor who looked a bit surprised.

"Are you taking care of this?" The Doctor asked, his eyes landing on Rory's. The Doctor then walked around Canton and out, quickly followed by River and Amy.

"Why is it always my turn?" Rory asked.

"Because you're the newest." Amy said, kissing Rory on the cheek and despite his scowl he spared her a smile. Amy motioned for Rose to follow and Rose patted Cantons shoulder before walking out of the TARDIS.

"About five miles from Cape Kennedy Space Center." The Doctor was saying as Rose stepped out of the TARDIS. The building looked abandoned, except it still seemed fully stocked. Desks and chairs with papers covering them all, strewn about the floor too. Cabinets half opened. Rose got a creeping feeling that this was off, there was something very wrong here.

The Doctor had found a chair and was making himself comfortable. Rose walked to the door, glancing down the empty, dimly lit hallways. Suddenly the Doctor was at her back, leaning over to peer down the hallways too.

"So how do you go about findin' a little girl, who's hiding from a spaceman in a huge, empty building that's probably full of good hidin' spots?" Rose asked conversationally. "Not to mention trying to avoid said spaceman."

"Doctor, but why are we here?" Amy asked and the Doctor spun around, not going to miss a chance to be brilliant.

"The President asked her two questions, who are you and where are you. She was answering the second one. And how would a little girl answer that question? By looking out the window." The Doctor opened the blinds.

"Street names, of course." Amy said.

"The only place in Florida, probably all of America, with those three street names on the same junction. And Doctor Song, you've got that face on again." The Doctor leaned against the wall, looking far too proud of himself.

"What face?" River asked.

"The he's hot when he's clever face." The Doctor said, grinning dopily. Rose rolled her eyes and stepped out into the hall, facing on direction and then the other. Thinking, if she were a scared little girl with a spaceman who she thought was going to eat her, where would she go?

"This is my normal face." River said, sounding flirtatious with a tad bit of annoyance.

"Yes, it is."

"Oh, shut up."

"Not a chance."

"Do they do that a lot?" Rose asked Amy as the Scottish girl walked out into the hall.

"They hardly ever stop." Amy said, sounding exasperated but both woman grinned at each other.

Rose, for her part, thought she was doing a rather lovely job of holding down her jealousy. She knew she shouldn't feel jealous anymore, it had been years since she saw the Doctor and probably longer than that for him. And yes, his previous body had loved her, even if he hadn't of said it Rose knew it but she had no claim on this Doctor. Rose had decided to crumple those feelings, those feelings she thought long dead when her half-human Doctor blinked out of existence, and shove them as far down as she could. She had come barreling into these peoples life's and she wouldn't make a show of herself by throwing her jealousy around.

But just because she was going to do the mature thing now did not mean she had to stand around and watch the frankly brilliant and beautiful River Song flirt with the extremely willing Doctor. No, she had a mission. Find a scared little girl and get her home.

"I'm goin' to check down this way, yell if you see anything yeah?" Rose walked off down the hall.

Rose Tyler was 26 years old now. She had helped save this particular world loads of times and the universe at least half a dozen, not to mention the other universe several times over. She had gotten over the mistake that was Jimmy Stone and pulled her life together, even if that life involved life as a shop girl with poor Mickey Smith and her mum and no A-levels. Then she had ran away with a madman in a box, and she had helped that madman in so many ways. Her half-human Doctor had told her how angry he had been, how terrible, horribly sad and alone he had been and how he had told himself, repeatedly, that he would not have any more companions. A 19 year old Rose Tyler had seen to end that rather quick, and without actually trying too, which this older Rose was very happy about. She always felt like he was helping her, saving her more often than she did for him, but she realized it had been more equal than that.

Then she had been stuck in another universe. Okay, yes, she had spent a few days in bed watching gory horror movies because she couldn't even stomach soaps or romance movies. But she had picked herself up again and had been introduced to the public as Pete and Jackie Tyler's daughter. They had told the press that they wanted their daughter to have a normal childhood, so she was off to boarding schools and a university in the States under her mothers maiden name. Rose Tyler suddenly had a record of perfect grades and even a degree, all fake but she wasn't about to tell anyone that. She joined Torchwood and upon seeing their way of dealing with aliens, shoot first and ask questions in a morgue, she had helped to change the way they did things, making Earth more alien-friendly.

That's how they had gotten the Dimensional Cannon in the first place. Worlds started blinking out of existence, there one night and gone another. Several groups of aliens, plus humans, had come to work at Torchwood. Building a machine that could get them to the one person would could figure out what was happening and how to stop it. Because they had realized that whatever was making the planets disappear was not actually happening in their universe, no it was happening in another dimension that their universe had branched off of.

Rose Tyler had spent six and half months jumping from place to place looking for the Doctor. Some of the places were fine, nice areas she could relax or walk about safely until the canon was ready to drag her back home. But some places burnt around her, collapsed and spit up acid in all directions. But Rose had survived and she had made her way to the Doctor.

Then she was back to being stuck in another world, with a different version of the man she had just been through hell to find. Rose had been angry. Actually anger didn't even begin to describe the level of pure fury she had felt towards the Doctor for abandoning her, again. When the anger fled, as it so often did because Rose could never stay angry for long, especially not at the Doctor, she was scared. Scared for her full Time Lord Doctor and scared for her Part Time Lord Doctor.

It took her one 15 minute conversation while tied up and held hostage by a group of, surprisingly, humans who did not believe that humans should associate themselves with aliens, to fall for this new-old Doctor.

Rose Tyler had even survived him being ripped away from her all too soon. She had once again picked up the pieces of her life and forced herself to continue moving.

It wasn't until she was walking down the dimly lit hallway of the abandoned building in 1969 Florida that Rose Tyler realized she had become a bit like the Doctor. Always running, never looking back for fear that the past would swallow her whole and never let her go.

After all she survived, all she had seen and done she was not going to let jealousy overrule her. Rose Tyler could share the Doctor. She had before, even though this was slightly different. Not so different from Reinette though.

Rose made a face as she tried to open one of the doors. Ugh- she tried her hardest not to think of Madame de whats-it. She was slightly satisfied when she learned that that particular person didn't even exist in the other world.

Rose suddenly felt a little dizzy and she leaned against the door. She heard something, a rattling something. She looked down the hall and saw a vague shape of something. Something far too tall and far too skinny to be human. Rose's heart felt like it wanted to pump faster but it seemed to be slowing down.

She fought with the door handle, her eyes focusing and unfocusing. Her vision became pinpoints and then suddenly black.

Rose woke suddenly but unlike the other two times she had blacked out she wasn't in the same position as before. She was sitting on the floor and there was a blurry face inches from hers.

"Rose, can you hear me?" Who was that? She knew it. Rory. It was Rory.

"'m fine, just give me a mo'." It seemed to be harder and harder to gain her barings each time she woke up from the black outs.

"Rose Tyler what have I told you about wandering off?" The Doctor asked, sounding annoyed and worried and about a dozen other things Rose was too tired to identify just then.

"Oi, watch it." Rose Tyler said, taping The Doctor on the nose when she finally managed to focus her eyes on him. "I was just tryin' to do what we came here to do after all, to find a scared little girl. You were too busy flirtin' and tryin' to be impressive." The Doctor winced. Then Rose remembered the alien. "Did you see it? The alien, tall bloke? I think it was a bloke, 'm not positive." She pushed herself to stand, smiling at Rory as he took her arm in his hand to steady her.

"Alien?" The Doctor asked, flicking out his sonic screwdriver and flourishing it about.

"Down the hall." Rose said, motioning with her chin. "I think he might have been tryin' to talk to me, what if I scared the poor guy?" Rose asked, feeling a bit bad now. If the alien had been bad he wouldn't have just abandoned her when she blacked out, it would have been the perfect opportunity to do whatever he wanted but he had just disappeared.

"Oh Rose Tyler, you brilliant, clever girl you." The Doctor put away his sonic and grinned at her.

"Go on now, off you go." Rose said, shooing them. "Like I said, 'm fine, and there's a scared little girl that could probably use some help about now." Rose was glad when the Doctor sent them all off with a 'don't go looking for trouble, Amelia Pond!' To which the Scottish girl gave the Doctor a look that while making Rose laugh, made the Doctor take a step back.

"Rose-"

"I know, I'm useless, actually 'm worse than useless." Rose said with a half hearted attempt at a smile. She took the key the Doctor offered her, her heart beat increasing just a bit which she promptly ignored.

"Rose Tyler, you are the most opposite of useless that you can get!" The Doctor said, cupping her face and bending down to look into her eyes. It was something new he did and Rose found she didn't mind it all that much.

"Don't worry about me, just need a bit of sleep then I'll be back." Rose felt herself leaning into the Doctors touch, whether from actually fatigue or just because it felt good being near him she wasn't quite sure. "Reckon it wasn't such a good thing to use a broken dimensional cannon without preparing at all."

The Doctor looked torn. He had a lot to worry about. They mysterious blue envelopes sent by his future self, trying to work out the mystery that was River Song, attempting to find a scared little girl, and then figuring out who this spaceman was and how exactly a little girl managed to call the president on his direct line. There were probably other things Rose knew nothing about, but she didn't want to add to his list of worries.

"The canon always worked best on me, but it still was still tirin'. Four hours of sleep and you'll be exhausted tryin' to keep up with me." Rose assured, making the Doctor grin.

"Wonderful, fantastic, lovely Rose Tyler." The Doctor was quickly searching through his pockets before he pulled out two little ear pieces, sticking one in his own ear with a flourishing movement that was becoming his signature, kind of jerky and uncoordinated but a bit mesmorising. Then he gently placed the other in Rose's ear. "When you get to the TARDIS go to the med bay and I'll speak you through what you need to do." He seemed to search for something else before giving up and pulling off his watch.

"How come you need a watch anyways?" Rose asked then gave him a cheeky grin, trying to hide the rising blush as he took ahold of her hand and pushed her sleeve back, place the gold watch on her wrist. "Nevermind, Amy told me about you being twelve years late, are you sure you wouldn't rather keep your watch?"

"Cheeky girl," The Doctor said, trying to look stern, which lasted all of two seconds in the face of Rose's grin. He beamed even brighter at her. "Rose Tyler, with me, in 1969."

"Chasin' aliens, savin' children, bit like old times, yeah?" Rose grinned, her heart beating so hard it felt like it wanted to burst out. Rose was just so happy, truly happy and she hadn't felt that way in a long time. She hadn't realized how worried she had been about the Doctor leaving her behind again because he had new companions, new adventures, and a new body that might not want a reminder of his old selves hanging around. But The Doctor was happy she was here and it put her at ease.

"Off you go," The Doctor and Rose walked in opposite directions, Rose looking down at what she believed was an ordinary watch but she should have known better. She taped the face of the watch, which was rather-well, blank. Rose then curiously put it up to her ear, as she had seen the Doctor do many times.

"Rose Tyler, age 26. Species, Homo Sapien Sapien, Earthling, Human-" The clocks interface made some clicking noises not even the TARDIS translated for Rose. "Designation: 28o31'34.10"N and 80o40'45.12"W, Cape Coral, east Central Florida, Florida, United States of America, North America, Earth. April 22nd, 1969." Rose put her arm back down, grinning from ear to ear as she swung into the room housing the TARDIS.

"Hello you beautiful thing," Rose greeted happily as she put the key in and opened the door. She was half way through when she heard a familiar rattling, rasping sound. She turned and saw the alien, much more clearly now. "Hello, I'm Rose Tyler, my friends are looking for a little girl, have you seen her?" Rose asked, using her best soothing voice.

"How do you remember Rose Tyler?" Rose gasped, because the creature didn't have a mouth and was most definitely talking in her head. Suddenly her center of gravity shifted and she was falling backwards, the door to the TARDIS snapping shut before gravity righted itself and she landed in a heap, by the door. Rose was just about to start cussing before staring up at the TARDIS console, giving it a quick thought.

"Not a good alien, I take it." Rose stated, pushing herself up and feeling a bit nauscous and even more tired but she gave the console a thankful pat, listening to it hum worriedly, before she made her way down the hall, pressing the communicator in her ear.

"Rose!" Rose winced and she could nearly hear the Doctor wince as Amy yelled at him to shut up. "Bit loud, wasn't that? Anyways, glad to see you made it to the TARDIS, now to the med bay, you'll find-"

"Doctor, real quick, that alien, the tall one from before yeah? He was waiting by the TARDIS, used telepathy to speak to me and I don't think the TARDIS liked him very much. Just be careful yeah?" Rose rushed out before the Doctor could speak over her, her London accent coming through full force. In the other world, where she was a university graduate, multi-billion pound heiress she was suppose to be well educated, wouldn't do well to have a heavy London accent. So she had learned to soften her voice, tone it down but in moments like this she forgot to. Then she realized she never actually had to hide who she was again.

"Sexy didn't like him? That's not good, she usually doesn't form many opinions about you lot." Rose knew the Doctor was encompassing the whole universe and all its many species in the 'you lot'.

"Sexy is it?" Rose asked, laughing. Rose walked into the Med Bay and sat down heavily in the first available chair. "And she does too have opinions about us, heavy ones too. Loves me, loved Jack and Mickey too. Hated Adam, tolerated me mum, really loved Donna-"

"Alright I get it! But if she didn't like him then we best keep a look out, maybe he's the spaceman?" The Doctor pondered.

"Yeah? Spaceman that's chasin' a little girl around?" Rose asked, sounding a bit dangerous and she lumbered to her feet but had to use the wall for support.

"Don't even think about it Rose Tyler, you need to rest and then you can go back to saving little girls from spacemen, today you'll just have to trust me to do that."

"Rory and Amy are there with you right? And Canton?"

"Oi, cheeky! Now listen, there's a bed, next to it-" Rose Tyler set up the few medical instruments that would help her. She put the mask on, covering her nose and mouth, and breathed in heavily, realizing for the first time that she hadn't actually been breathing all that well to begin with. She laid down on the bed, and with the Doctor still chatting in her ear, she fell asleep.

_"Doctor," Rose said, trying not to laugh but the amusement was still in her voice._

_ "No, no, I'm fine, go get ready, we're already late, I can do this." Rose kicked off her trainers and walked into her bedroom- no their bedroom. She was still getting use to the fact that she no longer lived alone, though the signs of the end of her solidarity was all over the place. Gadgets and gizmos the Doctor said he built, but Rose was really quite sure he kept stealing from the Torchwood archive, his multiple trainers (and how many shoes did one man need?) thrown about everywhere, her hair drier in pieces._

_ "What did you do to my hair dryer?" Rose asked, trying to sound stern but it didn't last very long. "Did you take something out of it because every hardware store has you on a watch list now?"_

_ "How did you find out about that?" The Doctor sputtered._

_ "I'm head of Torchwood," Rose said simply, which was an overestimation of what she was. She still had superiors she had to listen to, her dad for instance, and the President of the British Isles, but for the most part they let her do what she needed to do, and sometimes she needed to take a certain half-alien, half-human off of watch lists._

_ "I'm not building bombs!" The Doctor yelled. "Weeeellll, one bomb, but that was an accident and all it hurt was our oven." Yes, the oven was in shambles because of all the Doctors tinkering. He thought if he stopped his mind would become weak and he'd start losing things. So he was constantly building things, and one time he accidently built a bomb but he noticed before it went off and shoved it in their oven, where it blew it to pieces._

_ "How late are we?" Rose asked, pulling off her black pants and blue shirt before dashing into the en suite to brush her teeth, comb her hair, and wash her face._

_ "If we leave in 15 minutes we'll only be two hours late." The Doctor answered back automatically, sounding equal parts amused and annoyed. For once it wouldn't be him getting reamed out by Jackie for being late._

_ "And why again are we bringing Tony a present when it's me mums birthday?" Rose asked, flicking through her wardrobe to find the dress her mum had bought for her for this specific occasion. "Not that I object." Tony would be ecstatic when he opened his Science kit. It was just for kids, and most of the stuff he made would be edible, but the Doctor always bought something like that when he came over to the Tyler residence._

_ "Because he's probably bored out of his mind," The Doctor grumbled, still not happy that they hadn't found a way out of his affair. Mums real birthday celebration would be the following day, just the family and a big dinner Jackie made and then off to watch all of Jackie's favorite movies together. But since she was now married to the man who created Vitex she needed to fit a part, and that part meant lavious parties. Also, the Doctor liked bringing Tony presents because he was trying to win over the little guys affections. Tony had grown up on stories of the Doctor and Rose's adventures, but he had also grown up knowing that the Doctor had left behind his very favorite person, Rose, and making her look terribly sad sometimes. He was a smart one, little Anthony Tyler, and he held a bit of a grudge towards the Doctor. Though Rose reckoned it wouldn't be long until Tony gave into the Doctor._

_ "Doctor can you-" Rose walked out of their room, shoes in hand and dress unzipped to see the Doctor in quite a state. "What-"_

_ "Don't you dare, don't you dare laugh Rose Tyler!" The Doctor said, sounding all Oncoming Storm but Rose started laughing anyways. He had somehow managed to tape his hand together, and the wrapping paper was in a right state._

_ "Oh Doctor, this isn't exactly hard you know." Rose dropped her shoes and knelt down next to him, working to free his hand of the tape._

_ "Of course it's not! It's just wrapping a damn present and apparently that's too much to ask of this big brain of mine, this big dumb human brain that I can feel-" The Doctor took in a deep breath, looking away from Rose. Rose, for her part, remained silent as she freed his hand and then tried to turn his face to her but he refused. So Rose leant into him instead and kissed the corner of his mouth, watching as it twitched up, wanting to smile but not ready to do so yet. Rose felt a little trill run through her as she kissed his temple, letting her lips linger there for a moment. She still wasn't quite use to being able to kiss the Doctor whenever she felt like it._

_ "I'm rubbish at vaccuming, you've seen it, big chunks missed, scraps on the bottom of the walls because I can't seem to have enough coordination to not slam that stupid thing into every corner. Pete, my brilliant dad, can't type. You should see him, he uses his two fingers and just pokes at the keyboard, it takes him forever to send out an email." The Doctor was smiling now. "Jake, perfect aim, never missed anything with a gun Jake, can't do the wash. Everything ends up pink or two times smaller than it originally started."_

_ "Alright, alright, I get it Rose Tyler." The Doctor sighed and handed her the scissors, watching as she cut off the pieces of wrapping paper he mangled. "My brain is not turning to mush just because I can't wrap a present." Rose was leaning forward now and the Doctor just noticed that the back of her dress was completely open. He could see her soft pink bra and just the top of her matching knickers. He cleared his throat and began to ramble in earnest. "Though that's an interesting phenomenon, I say phenomenon but I meant virus. And by virus I mean bacteria, weeeellll, sort of bacteria, sort of insect, but not really an insect at all. Anyways, gets into your head, and starts eating at your brain, actually turning it into mush so it can process it."_

_ "Doctor, that's horrible, where do these virus but not virus live?" Rose asked, leaning up after finishing wrapping the present._

_ "Deepest part of your ocean, but don't worry, you lot won't go down that deep for another 500 years. Perhaps sooner since this world runs a bit faster than the other one." The Doctor was paying close attention as he mentioned the other universe but Rose didn't bat an eye. What she did do was turn around so he could zip her up. _

_ "Wrapping presents, not good but zipping up dresses and telling horrifying stories, above average." Rose graded, kissing the Doctor on the cheek before standing up and slipping on her flats. She had stopped wearing heels just around the time she met the Doctor. Never knew when she had to run and she was not risking a broken ankle to look stylish._

_ It took them another ten minutes to leave the house because the Doctor wanted to hear all the ways in which he was fantastic and every time Rose would attempt to leave the house, the Doctor would reach out and unzip her dress. They were a giggling mess when they finally arrived to the party, trying to pull on their serious adult faces but failing miserably._

_ "Oh god, you decided to show up then?" Jackie asked upon opening the door. She looked a mess. Well, technically, she looked stunning but Rose could tell Jackie was not faring well at all. Jackie loved a party as much as the next person, and she had even really enjoyed all the lavish parties in the beginning. But there were too many lies to keep straight and it seemed like people were more out for gossip than friendship. At least that second part wasn't too different from the council estate._

_ "I'm sorry mum, I got stuck at work, nobodies there because they are all here!" Rose said cheerfully, giving her mum a hug and ignoring the flash of light from a camera. "Happy Birthday." Rose handed over a wrapped present. Her mums real present was in the backseat of her car, this one was just for show._

_ "Thank you sweetheart, well don't stand there all day, come in come in." Jackie ushered them in, pulling the Doctor into a tight hug as he tried to sneak by. "Now go get something to eat, skin and bones you both are, need to learn to take care of yourselves better." After two stressful weeks of Torchwood Rose was glad to be home, glad to have her mum take charge and she meekly listened and headed towards the food, smiling over at the Doctor as his hand found hers._

_ "Rose," Pete greeted happily, turning away from the head of UNIT to greet her. It had been awkward at first, but Pete found he enjoyed having Rose around, he loved her quite a lot actually even if she still called him Pete instead of dad._

_ "Hello," Rose hugged Pete then greeted the head of UNIT, a tall Amazonian looking woman by the name of Casey McGreen who had been trying to poach Rose from Torchwood. Part of Rose's job was to play liaison between the two companies, and Rose found she was quite good at it actually, though it ended with a headache more often than not._

_ The Doctor and Rose made their way through the party, greeting people along the way. They talked to some people, like Mickey and Jake, longer than others. Mickey was dating Martha Jones, who didn't know that the boyfriend she was falling for quite quickly was actually from another universe. The Doctor assured Mickey that if this Martha Jones was anything like the other worlds Martha Jones, and she was nearly identical except this one had spent some time helping out in Peru, than she was completely trustworthy. The Doctor told Rose that Mickey was completely different, grown up in all the right ways. Rose said that probably had to do with his grams and the fact that he was a well respected Torchwood agent, and a little bit to do with Martha Jones being amazing._

_ They filled plates with food before sneaking off upstairs. Tony was reading a story to his nanny, struggling over a word here or there but pushing through. He started jumping around excitedly when Rose and the Doctor came in, especially when he saw the present._

_ "Oh good job now, he was just getting tired." Donna Noble accused with a put upon sigh. Rose had offered the other woman a job at Torchwood but this worlds Donna Noble had a load of insecurities to work through before she believed she was as brilliant as both Rose and the Doctor knew her to be. So she was Tony's nanny instead. "Sit down both of you and eat, you're both far too skinny."_

_ "We've got him for a bit Donna, if you want to go down to the party." Rose offered, taking a seat on the floor and putting her plate on the small, child sized table where Tony did his colorings. The Doctor sat next to her, beaming away as Tony tore into the present._

_ After Donna went down to the party, the Doctor helped Tony set up his Grow Colossal Crystals kit, shoving food into his gob whenever Rose reminded him to eat. The Doctor was nearly as excited about the kit as Tony. Rose sat watching them, finishing off her food and joining in when Tony begged her to._

_ Tony fell asleep in Rose's lap about an hour later and the Doctor helped to carefully put him to bed but his little hand grabbed out for Rose's and she agreed to one bedtime story. Rose decides on The Impossible Planet, leaving out the more frightening bits. Tony fights it but he falls asleep rather quickly, leaving Rose on the bed with him but looking too comfortable to move._

_ Rose looked over at the Doctor, about to make a comment, but he was fast asleep too. Sitting on the floor, using his arm as a pillow on the bed. It didn't look like a comfortable position but Rose didn't have the heart to wake him up._

_ Rose closed her eyes, a small nap couldn't hurt._

_ When she opened her eyes the Doctor was gone._


	4. Chapter 4

Three Months Later

"And he's going on and on about how he's the prince and I'm just some lowly human and how dare I talk to him, such filth should never be allowed to talk to him directly so I just start pretending like there's a problem with my translator. Oh, hell, it's acting up, stupid bloody human technology. And he's getting angrier and angrier as I just pretend I can't understand a thing he's saying, and Mickey and Jake and Abbot are making a good go of trying to keep their faces straight but they are seconds away from laughing. But then ambassadors come and they smooth everything out and thank us and take the prince away and everyone starts laughing. We're covered in a layer of slime, bruised and scraped and haven't showered in four days and we can't stop laughing." Rose explains one of her first Torchwood missions, after she was left on that beach the first time.

Rose is walking down the corridors of the TARDIS and even though the Doctor doesn't respond back, she knows he's listening. Knows he's amused and he's got loads to say but he can't because he's pretending to be caught and imprisoned currently. All part of his clever plan.

See, these new aliens, these aliens that have been on Earth for a long time now can get into everyone's heads and make sure you don't remember them when you look away. All except one Rose Tyler. There was a big argument about that of course.

_"Well why her? Why can she remember them and none of us? Not even you Doctor?" River asked, refusing to address Rose by her name._

_ "Loads of reasons! Could be any one of them or a vast combination of all of them. Something she picked up in our travels, maybe something from her dimensional hopping, or something over in that other world. Who knows?" The Doctor grumbled, explaining not for the first or the last time._

So Amy, Rory, and River were off across America, counting up the aliens while the Doctor was being imprisioned and Rose was stuck in the TARDIS for her own well being.

Not that she didn't love the TARDIS, but she was getting sick of hearing her own voice. During the day she spent her time reading in the library, swimming in one of the five pools she had found, learning new recipes in the kitchen, surfing the internet, watching tv, and basically running around the TARDIS, finding new rooms each time. The TARDIS was probably doing a lot of shifting around, trying to keep the blonde busy but Rose was going a bit stir crazy.

"We didn't really remain a team for long. Mickey, Jake, and Abbot were all able to be team leads and that's the position Torchwood wanted them at. All with their own team. I got paired up with Abbot a lot after that. The missions were all pretty tame, I reckon they didn't want to explain to the head of Torchwood why his daughter was missing or dead." Rose said, hearing a small noise from the Doctor through her ear piece at the mention of her death.

"Doctor, we haven't really had a chance to talk about this yet, considerin' everything that's happened but- I don't want to go back to that other world. Not again, I've been thinkin' about it for a while now. Everyone's got someone else over there, plus time moves quicker over there anyways so I've probably been gone quite a while." Rose took a deep breath and continued on. "'s okay if you don't want me to stay around, I've only seen to muck things up, but please don't look for a way to send me back."

"Rose Tyler." The name was whispered, making Rose stop in the middle of the hall and close her eyes. The gentle hum of the TARDIS was all she heard for a moment before she could make out what the people surrounding the Doctor were saying.

"There he goes, saying that name again." One grumbled.

"Well he's obviously insane." Another said softly, but not soft enough. If Rose could hear them then the Doctor definitely could.

"Did I tell you that I met that worlds Captain Jack Harkness?" Rose rushed to ask, swinging into her room. She had travelled with her first Doctor and second one for over two years, and in that time she had always been rushing into her bedroom and out again. The longest she ever spent in there was to sleep. It had made it quite the mess so after a month of boredom Rose spent two whole days cleaning the room. Then she had hopped out of her room and had the TARDIS change it around. She had done that 8 times, letting the TARDIS decide each redecoration.

"He was a lot different, the Time Agency never took those years of his memory away so he was still workin' for them. Came to track me down because I was punching holes in the fabric of space and time. Actually came to arrest me and bring me up on charges, intergalactic charges." Rose stopped her story when she heard Canton talking to the Doctor. She listened carefully as the American agent described the deaths of the Doctor's companions.

"That time then, yeah?" Rose asked, quickly pulling off her jim jams and pulling on some actual clothes. Jeans, trainers, and a green jumper with her hair pulled back. Rose dashed down the corridors, picking up speed then sliding to a stop in the console room with a grin. She peered at the diagrams above the TARDIS, though she really need to since she had looked at them so many times she had them memorized. She started pushing buttons and pulling levers, dancing around the TARDIS console and laughing to herself at the sheer amount of ridiculous happiness she felt.

Rose listened to Canton talk to the Doctor, and the Doctors sardonic replies but she could hear the hint of amusement, amusement directed at her.

It had been a tough three months for everyone. Rose didn't know how it was for the others but she was quite ready and willing to move onto the next part of their plan. Rose had talked a lot during those three months, mostly telling stories to amuse the Doctor during his time alone, having to pass the time in the right order, all the while tied to a chair with people around him who feared and even hated him. But there were times, breaks in Rose's armor, where she would wake up from a dream involving her lost Doctor and she would suddenly be crying and telling his new one all the things that had happened.

"The door to the pool room is open, I left a towel and a change of clothes for River." Rose said, pressing three buttons at once then dashing over to the other side of the TARDIS to press another, nearly identical three buttons. "Tea! I should make some tea, and nibbles, everyone will probably be famished and in need of a good cuppa. Do you want to ask Canton how he takes his tea? Probably cold, rubbish Americans." Rose joked, while nearly skipping down the hall to the kitchen to set about making tea for everyone.

Rose Tyler had a lot of time to think, which meant she spent a lot of time avoiding all the things she should actually be working out. Like where she would go if the Doctor decided to dump her again. That had been a relatively easy one, Captain Jack Harkness. Mickey was in this universe too but she didn't want to go bothering him, she actually felt bad about how she had treated him. Of course she had been young and kind of an idiot, but she had treated Mickey like- well like a Tin Dog. Jack wouldn't mind taking her in though, and she had experience working with Torchwood. The prospect didn't actually seem all that bad, if she ignored the part where the Doctor left her in Cardiff.

She also thought about the Doctor himself a lot. Rose could already feel herself falling for this goofy Doctor, with his mad professor clothes and his gangly way of strutting around. There was something so very sad about him too, but he was over 900 years old, he had a lot to be sad about. Rose decided she would make sure he had more to be excited over than upset about though, and that's where her feelings would end. No more falling in love with the Doctor, she had her chance, several of them actually and it always turned pear shaped and left her crying in bed.

Plus there was River Song to consider. River quite clearly did not like Rose Tyler, but besides her ill feelings towards the younger girl, Rose did not harbor any of the same feelings. Rose saw how River felt about the Doctor, it was written all over her face. The 'he's hot when he's clever' look, and Rose was not going to come in between them.

Rose felt a bit bad for River on this front, and felt a bit of weight lift off her shoulders when she committed to being only the Doctors friend and travel companion and nothing else. It was hard being in love with an 900 year old alien with a checkered past who hit on French royalty in front of you even though you had made your feelings quite clear. It was hard knowing that the Time Lord would never openly admit to his feelings, always having to read between the lines in his "Oh she knows" and "Rose Tyler, you brilliant girl!"

So Rose was fully committed to stepping back and letting River Song take over the part of love interest in the Doctors life. Rose was also fully committed to learning exactly who Doctor River Song was, because the past 3 months gave Rose a lot of time to ponder this. She had told the Doctor a few of her theories, some believable, some aimed just to make the Doctor laugh.

"Miss Rose Tyler, come on down!" The Doctor shouted out, his voice vibrating in her ear and down the corridors of the TARDIS. Rose grinned and dashed back to the console room, waving happily to Amy and Rory. She handed them wipes, to get the writing off their skin and they gave her grateful looks. "All the doors to the swimming pools open?" The Doctor asked, spinning around the console with gusto and limbs that seemed a bit too long for him.

"Check," Rose confirmed, bouncing around as the Doctor grinned over at her, beaming at her preparation to the console. "How'd I do captain?"

"Absolutely stunning!" A lever was thrown and they were all holding on for their lives as the TARDIS dematerialized.

"So, we know they're everywhere!" The Doctor called out, not even batting an eye as River came falling through the TARDIS and down the corridor. A distant splash heard. Rose never laughed as Canton followed the Doctor calmly around the console. "Not just a landing party, an occupying force, and they've been here a very, very long time." River walked up the corridor, changed into dry clothes and using a towel on her hair. "But nobody knows that because no one can remember them."

"Except Miss Tyler." Canton says, nodding over to Rose who beams at him.

"Yes, of course, except Rose Tyler, brilliant, extradinary Rose Tyler." The Doctor stops his lever pulling and button pushing long enough to bound over to Rose and give her a big hug, dragging her into his arms and spinning her around. Rose laughs as her feet are lifted off the ground and his beard tickles her face.

"What's this then?" Rose asks, after the Doctor puts her back on her feet, she touches his beard.

"I've been locked up Rose Tyler, no time to shave when you're being slowly imprisoned for three months." The Doctor taps her nose, making her grin widen and then he notices something around her neck. "Is that my bow tie?"

"No, you lost that one, the agents took it, no idea why, what could possibly be done with a bow tie-" Rose looks over at Canton for an explanation but the American agent just smiles mysteriously and shrugs. "So I found you another." Rose pulls the undone bow tie off of her neck and hands it to the Doctor, barely able to stop herself from putting it on him. _Just a companion_, she reminds herself firmly.

"Wonderful!" The Doctor says, a little too cheerfully and he winces but he's back to running around the console again, leaving the bowtie loose and undone around his neck. Rose shakes off the feeling that the alien is feeling disappointed that she didn't tie it up for him, she often times had done it for his previous form and his ties.

"So what are they up to?" Canton asks, glancing at Rose as if she might know the answer.

"No idea," Rose and the Doctor say in union, grinning at each other. "But the good news is, we've got a secret weapon."

"What, her?" River asks, glancing over to Rose.

"Oi, not a weapon, and I'd be a rubbish one stuck in the TARDIS." Rose grumbles, pushing herself onto the jump seat and swinging her legs.

"No not Rose," The Doctor grabs Rose's hand, yanking her off the jump seat and running with her out of the TARDIS. Rose stumbles but manages to catch herself, years of gymnastics and Torchwood training and just plain running with the Doctor had given her pretty good reflexes and balance. "See any Rose?"

"Not your secret weapon, just your eyes, your girl Friday." Rose says cheerfully, glancing around for any signs of the tall aliens.

"Exactly!" The Doctor twirls Rose around, making Rose laugh breathlessly.

"Apollo 11 is your secret weapon?" River asks, standing on the other side the Doctor.

"No, no, it's not Apollo 11. That would be silly." The Doctor says, a mad glint in his eyes. "It's Neil Armstrong's foot."

They are back in the TARDIS, Rose sitting on one of the jumper seats as she watches the scene unfold in front of her. This Doctor likes putting on a show, all mysterious and flourishing movements, like a magician and he really is the complete opposite of her first Doctor. Her first Doctor who hated the round about way of getting places, he just wanted to barrel straight through to answers.

The Doctor took a gun-looking object and pressed it against Canton's hand, making the other man scowl at the Doctor.

"Ha! So three months, what have we found out?" The Doctor asked, glancing between Rory and Amy who were standing several meters apart and ignoring the still scowling Canton.

"Well, they are everywhere." Rory says, a slight hint of panic under his dead panned tone and Rose found herself liking Rory with every growing moment. "Every state in America- ahh!" Rory grabbed his hand, rubbing it after the Doctor had stabbed him with the gun-looking contraption.

"Not just America, the entire world!" The Doctor said, doing a good job of ignoring both Canton and Rory. Rose slowly tucked her hands under her thighs.

"There's a great concentration here, though." River said calmly, looking at the TARDIS's monitor.

"Ow!" Amy pulled her hand away from the Doctor, frowning at him.

"You okay?" The Doctor asked, looking concerned. Rose pretended to look elsewhere, knowing this was a private moment and his question had nothing to do with shooting Amy in the hand.

"All better." Amy said, the anger at the pain in her hand gone now. It really was such a small room, Rose couldn't help but overhear, though if she was being completely truthful she wasn't trying her hardest to give them privacy. She just couldn't help herself, she was so curious about the Scottish girl and her snarky husband and the mysterious Doctor Song.

"Better?" The Doctor asked. Rose watched as Rory took notice of the quiet exchange between the Doctor and his red headed companion. Rose took a deep breath, holding it in, as she recognized the look on Rory's face. Oh, poor Rory. Rose should have guessed that there had been some feelings that Amy had for the Doctor, she had met him when she was just a child after all, and he did have a habit of making an impact on a girls life.

"Turns out I was wrong. I'm- I'm not pregnant." Rose's eye brows raised at that.

"What's up?" Rory asked, coming between the Doctor and Amy.

"Nothing." Amy answered back quickly, instantly. "Really, nothing, seriously." The Doctor suddenly look very concerned at Amy's rapid fire of assurances. Rory worried his wedding ring, spinning it around on his finger as he stared at Amy.

It was all quite, well- domestic. This Doctor really was the complete opposite of her first one.

"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them?" Canton asked, purposefully changing the focus away from the young couple.

"You've see them too." River said, fiddling with the console as she continued to stare at the monitor. "That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down, we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like." The Doctor pointed to Rose, who scrunched up her face at him, making him grin in response. Rose knew what they looked like, but apparently she was a horrid drawer and couldn't explain them any better. Tall, gray, small beady eyes, dent where their mouth should have been, and dressed impeccably in suits. All in all, quite terrifying the more Rose thought about it.

"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away. The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything." Rory said helpfully, hand on his hip, and looking remarkably better without marker all over his skin.

"Sometimes, you feel a bit sick, though, but not always." Amy explained after.

"I reckon that may come from direct contact with them, if they speak to you. It would be reasonable that whatever they do to your mind has to be done more so if you interact with them." Rose piped up. The Doctor pointed at her and then held out his hand, making the blonde laugh as she leaned over to give him a high five. She fiddled with the inhaler like object in her pocket. Three months spent on the TARDIS meant she spent a lot of time in the Med Bay, hooked up to that machine that helped with the Time Sickness. The Doctor had made her a temporary fix in the inhaler, so she wouldn't be left vulnerable, it allowed her to work through the black out.

"So that's why you marked your skin." Canton worked out, looking at the marker around Amy's neck.

"The only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter." Amy confirmed.

"How long have they been here?" Canton asked, sounding more intrigued than worried.

"That's what we've spent the last three months trying to find out."

"Yeah, not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover." Rory chimed in.

"Why not use the one person who can remember?" Canton asked, looking over at Rose but the Doctor stepped into his line of sight.

"Because they are spread out all over this world, and I don't know the extent of their abilities yet, or what they would be willing to do to the one person who can do the exact thing they are making sure no one else can." The Doctor said, sounding quite dangerous but Canton still didn't look alarmed.

"How long do you think?" Canton asked, wisely switching to look at Amy, who was giving the Doctor a questioning look.

"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye or creaking in your house or breathing under you bed or voices through a wall. They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head – we are not fighting an alien invasion. We're leading a revolution. And today the battle begins." The Doctor said, quite dramatically in Rose's opinion, standing in front of Canton.

"How?" Canton asked, sounding mildly curious. Rose found herself liking Canton more and more each day.

"Like this-" The Doctor reached back and shot River's hand, making her yell and him laugh. "Nanorecorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He then shot himself, which was only fair. He looked over at Rose and she gave him a challenging look. "And it tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain. It'll pick up your voice, no matter what – telepathic connect. So the moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing." The Doctor pushed his palm, his voice repeating.

Because the moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand – if you've hand an encounter, that's the first you'll know about it." The Doctor finished, holding out the gun to Rose, who took it and considered her options. Didn't seem necessary to her, as it was highly unlikely that the Doctor would let her out wandering to have an encounter with these aliens.

"Why didn't you tell me this before we started?" Canton asked.

"I did. But even information about these creatures erases itself over time. I couldn't refresh it because I couldn't talk to you." Rose watched the scene play out. The Doctor putting up the hologram, Canton turning around and then recording a message before turning back around and fixing the Doctor's bowtie. The reveal to Canton. "It's a hologram, extrapolated from the photo on Amy's phone. Take a good, long look." The Doctor turned off the hologram.

You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting-" The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Describe it to me." He stared at Canton, snapping his fingers again.

"I can't." Canton said, now a little worry seeping into his voice, his face going a bit paler. He wasn't the only one looking a little ill.

"No." The Doctor confirmed, looking over at his other companions. "Neither can I. You straightened my bowtie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature." The Doctor walked around the console, away from his companions and grabbed hold of the monitor.

"So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it." Amy offered up, following the Doctor to the other side of the console.

"Like posthypnotic suggestion." Rory stood behind Amy, his arms crossed, watching the Doctor work.

"Ruling the world with posthypnotic suggestion?" Amy asked.

"Now, then, a little girl in a spacesuit, they got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?" The Doctor asked.

"Could be anywhere." Canton answered.

"Except they'd probably stay close to that warehouse because why bother doing anything else? And they'd take her from somewhere that would cause the least amount of attention. But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA, we're off to NASA." The Doctor was grinning again, pointing over to Rose.

"Find her? Where do we look?"

"Children's homes."

"I told you, I'm on a top secret mission for the president." Rose snorted as she walked around the TARDIS console, alone again in the TARDIS while everyone else was off doing their bit to help. The Doctor was really quite lucky that she was 26 and not 19, because no matter the risk, a 19 year old Rose Tyler would have never stayed in the TARDIS.

Rose knew this is was the best option. If there wasn't a scared little girl being used by mind altering creatures from another world than Rose would have pushed a little harder to be involved. But despite what the Doctor had said, Rose was a secret weapon. Actually she was the last card in the deck, the fail safe plan incase everything went horribly wrong. And it wouldn't do anyone any good if she went storming around and got herself caught or killed.

Despite knowing this was the only way to go about this it didn't stop her from being incrediably bored. Rose laid down on the glass floor, spread wide, and listened to the President talk to the men in charge of Apollo 11.

"No idea how you thought you'd be able to sneak in and out of Apollo 11 without getting caught," Rose said as the Doctor, Rory, and River walked into the TARDIS.

"I am very sneaky Rose." The Doctor said, stepping over her outstretched arm and then laying down beside her.

"You have gotten less sneaky with each regeneration, which is saying something because you were never sneaky to begin with." Rose commented, laughter lacing her voice.

"Uh- what are they doing?" Rory asked.

"Wasting time." River snapped, walking over to the console. Rose closed her eyes as a sharp pain sliced through her head.

"Rose?" The Doctor asked, causing Rose to sit up and scoot herself back, digging her palms against her eyes to alleviate the pain.

"Amy." Rose gasped out, causing the Doctor to jump up and move River out of the way before taking control of the TARDIS. These feelings, these horrible feelings were far apart, which Rose was very grateful for. But they came before the worst of situations. The first, and only, time she ignored it half her team ended up incinerated and she ended up in the hospital for two weeks in a medical induced coma.

Rory is out the door first as soon as the TARDIS touches down, followed quickly by River. The Doctor hesitates but Rose waves him away, the headache is receding and Amy needs him more than Rose does.

"Please, can anyone hear me?" Rose's head shoots up. Is that- Amy?

"Amy?" Rose forces herself to stand. She can hear Amy sobbing, the noise echoing around her and Rose stumbles over to the console, staring at a blinking red light. Rose can hear, through the communicator in her ear, the Doctor talking but she blocks them out.

"Doctor, are you there? Can you hear me?" Amy asks, sounding impossibly young and scared. "Doctor. Oh, god. Please, please, Doctor, just get me out of this." Rose pulls out the inhaler with shaky hands, sticking it in her mouth and inhaling deeply to keep the blackness at bay. The blonde then stands up straight and turns, her Torchwood professional and cold demeanor in place as she strides out of the TARDIS, into a room full of the alien creatures.

"So is this what you do then?" Rose asks, her voice clipped and short. Rose ignores the fact that her skin is glowing softly, a golden light, and she files that away to deal with later. "You go around taking scared little girls?" Rose knows the TARDIS has her shields up, knows she can't take more than a couple steps out of the TARDIS but she stands tall.

"How do you remember, Rose Tyler?" The noise is a rattle inside her skull.

"You've made a big mistake." Rose says, her eyes darting from one of the creatures to another as the rattling in her head increases. She knows what they are doing, trying to crack her mind open and erase all trace of themselves. Perhaps end her too. "See, the Doctor would probably forgive you for invadin' the Earth, he's forgiven more but you've gone too far. You should never, ever have taken anything he cares about." Rose can feel her insides burning but she chokes down her own fear, her own tears as the glowing from her skin brightens.

"It will not matter." The creature answers back.

"You should run now, you should run very fast and very far because you've just made a terrible enemy." Rose's voice sounded split, but she ignored that. Ignored the fact that she wasn't even sure if the enemy they made was indeed the Doctor, or her. Rose turned and walked back into the TARDIS. "I know your faces." Rose said before the TARDIS doors slammed shut.

Rose watches as River and the Doctor examine the suit. Rory is clutching the nanorecorder, looking pale and angry and upset but not saying anything.

The Silence, that's what the creatures are called. Makes sense, Rose thinks, though not really to her. They give her a real headache whenever she has to interact with them, not quite silent enough for her. But Rose knows now isn't the time for jokes, so she sits back and lets them work.

"I love you. I-I know you think it out to be him, but it's not, it's you-" Rory is on the ground now, staring at the little blinking tech and looking completely at a loss. The Doctor is leant over the spacesuit, staring at Rory in mute horror and even River has stopped her movements. "And when I see you again, I'm going to tell you properly, just to see your stupid face. My life was so boring before you just dropped out of the sky." The Doctor has stepped closer, wringing his hands and looking like he was considering taking the device away from Rory. "So just get your stupid face where I can see it, okay? Okay?"

"She'll be safe for now," The Doctor says, sitting next to Rory and patting his knee. "No point in a dead hostage."

"Doctor, really." Rose used her foot to nudge the Doctors shoulder, not in the least trying to be gentle. The Doctor looked over at her, looking confused.

"Can't you save her?" Rory asked, and Rose really has to hand it to the guy. He was handling himself extremely well considering the situation.

"I can track that signal back, take us right to her." The Doctor says, reaching back to take hold of Rose's ankle. Whether for comfort or to keep her from kicking him again she's not quite sure.

"Then why haven't you?"

"Because then what? I find her, and then what do I do? This isn't an alien invasion, they live here. This is their empire. This is kicking the Romans out of Rome." The grip on her ankle tightens.

"Rome fell."

"I know. I was there."

"So was I." Rose's eye brows leapt up her forehead. The Doctor took Rory to Rome to watch it fall? Rory the Roman, that was what the Doctor had called him. Rory was Roman? Sounded British to her but then maybe that was the TARDIS, translating. The Doctor took a Roman out of his time, and he ended up marrying a Scottish girl who was in love with the Doctor? Rose's mum would have loved this, better than her soaps this was. The blonde felt a pang of sorrow at the thought of her mum but she pushed that back.

"Personal question." The Doctor stated, looking quite proud and fond.

"Seriously, you?"

"Do you ever remember it? 2,000 years, waiting for Amy, the last centurion." The Doctor glanced up at Rose, who's eye brows were up in her hair line and she gave him a look that clearly stated 'oh we are talking later'.

"No."

"You're lying."

"Of course I'm lying."

"Of course you are. Not the sort of thing anyone forgets."

"But I don't remember it all the time. It's like this door in my head. I can keep it shut." Rory says softly and the Doctor nods. Upon first meeting Rory and remeeting the Doctor, Rose could not imagine two people to be more different, but now she was seeing they were very similar.

"Please, please just come and get me." Amy was sobbing and the Doctors hold on Rose's ankle tightened more, nearly becoming painful but Rose didn't say anything, didn't try to shake him off. "Come and get me." The Doctor stood suddenly, letting go of Rose's ankle and not making eye contact with anyone else in the room. Rose slid next to Rory and offered her hand, which after a moment of hesitation Rory took. His palm was slick against her own, and he held her hand so tightly the bones ground together but Rose just squeezed his hand back.

"Everyone into the TARDIS! And Rose, grab that telly!" The Doctor suddenly yelled after conferring with River over the space suit. Everyone piled into the TARDIS, watching as the Doctor hurriedly dashed around the console before running down back to the doors again.

"Oh, interesting. Very Aickman Road." The Doctor said as he poked his head out of the TARDIS, River and Rory following behind. Rose stood in the doors of the TARDIS, holding a telly and giving a little finger wave to the Silence occupying the room. "I've seen one of these before. Abandoned. I wonder how that happened." Amy was strapped to a chair, but grinning and looking relatively unharmed. "Oh well, I suppose I'm about to find out! Rory, River, keep one Silent in eyeshot at all times. Rose, stand there and be brilliant, perfect."

"Oh, hello! Sorry. You were in the middle of something. I just had to say though, have you seen what's on the telly?" The Doctor took the television from Rose, giving her a toothy grin but there was a certain look in his eyes. Dark and unfathomable, death was coming. "Oh, hello, Amy. Are you alright? Want to watch some television? Ah! Now, stay where you are." The Doctor plopped down the television, his cheerful facade slipping. "Because look at me, I'm confident. You want to watch that- me, when I'm confident. Oh, and this is my friend River. Nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kind of do, a bit."

"Thank you sweetie." River said, smiling and sounding cheerful also, her gun pointed outward.

"I know you're team players and everything but she'll definitely kill at least the first three of you." They were back to back now, flirting dangerously.

"Well, the first seven, easily."

"Seven, really?"

"Oh, eight for you, honey."

"Stop it."

"Make me."

"Yeah? Well, maybe I will."

"Is this really important, flirting?" Amy asks and Rose can't help but laugh to herself. "Because I feel like I should be higher on the list right now."

"Someone really should get her off of that chair." Rose pipes up, looking over to the silence nearest to her left. "You maybe? The one behind me will do just fine too." Rory went over to help Amy and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS fully, rising an eye brow when the silence nearest her took a step back.

"Yes, right, sorry. As I was saying, my naughty friend here is going to kill the first three of you to attack, plus him behind so maybe you want to draw lots or have a quiz." The humans, and Time Lord, in the room were busy paying attention to the Silence near Amy and most of the Silence was paying attention to the Doctor but there were a couple near the TARDIS, and their attention was fixed on Rose. "Or maybe you could just listen a minute. Because all I really want is to accept your total surrender." The Doctor was pacing now, walking in front of Rose and in front of the Silence near her, giving her a quick glance and she knew he had taken note of their reaction to her. "And then I'll let you go in peace, yes. You've been interfering in human history for thousands of years, yes, people have suffered and died, but what's the point in two hearts if you can't be a bit forgiving now and then? Oh The Silence, you guys take that seriously, don't you? Okay, you got me, I'm lying. I'm not really going to let you go that easily. Nice thought, but it's not Christmas. First, you tell me about the girl." The Doctor flicked on the television.

Rose took an experimental step forward, towards the Silence and watched as they moved back. None of them had moved an inch since they landed, except for the ones near her. Rose tilted her head, just slightly, something quite wolfish about the action as she stared at the Silence. She tried not to pay much attention to the Doctors rambling, because whatever was about to happen was not going to be good. This new, new, new Doctor was about to reveal who he really was.

_"No second chances, that's the kind of man I am."_ Her second Doctor had said, bursting with energy and decked out in borrowed jim jams.

"Who is she? Why is she important? What's she for? Guys, sorry, but you're way out of time. Now, come on, a bit of history for you. Aren't you proud? Because you helped." The Doctor pulled out the antenna's on the television. "Now, do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion. And that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars. You just watch them fly, billions and billions of them, or billions and billions of years, and every single one of them, at some point in their lives, will look back at this man, taking this very first step, and they will never, ever forget it. Oh. But don't forget this bit."

The Doctor pulled out a mobile looking device, saying 'ready' into it as he stared into the face of one of the creatures. Rose couldn't see what was on the television, but she could hear the sudden static and then a rattling voice.

"You should kill us all on sight."

"You've given the order for your own execution, and the whole planet just heard you."

"One giant leap for mankind."

"And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence! You just raised an army against yourself and now, for a thousand generations, you're going to be ordering them to destroy you every day. How fast can you run? Because today's the day the human race throw you off their planet. They won't even know they're doing it. I think, quite possibly, the word you're looking for right now is oops. Run. Guys, I mean us. Run!" The Doctor ducked and River started firing.

"I can't get her out!" Rory yelled and Rose pushed into action. She slid by the Doctor, reading into his breast pocket to snatch the sonic and then over to the Ponds, looking down at the settings and trying to find the right one.

"Go! Go!" Amy yelled

"We are not leaving with you." Rory said, still pulling on the bindings.

"Look, will you just get your stupid face out of here!" Amy yelled back, causing Rory to look up suddenly. Rose grinned but she didn't look away from the sonic. That bloody idiot had put more settings in here!

"Run! Into the TARDIS! Quickly!" River shouted. The Doctor popped up behind Rose, finding the setting quickly and pointing it at Amy's bindings, all the while with a shocked Rose still holding the sonic. The Doctor landed a soft kiss on the back of Rose's head before slipping the sonic between her surprised fingers and dashing off.

Rory and Rose helped Amy stumble back into the TARDIS. The Doctor brandishing his sonic screw driver around, mostly just getting in their way and not doing much of anything for the aliens who were shooting bloody lightning at them! Since when could they do that?!

"Don't let them build to full power!" The Doctor shouted, making his way over to River once the Ponds and Rose were back in the TARDIS's range of shield.

"I know!" River yelled back, sounding annoyed. "There's a reason why I'm shooting, honey! What are you doing?"

"Helping!" The Doctor said. Rory took Amy's full weight as Rose opened the TARDIS doors.

"You've got a screwdriver! Go build a cabinet!"

"That's really rude!"

"Learn how to drive!" The Doctor slammed into the TARDIS door, and River spun around. There was the sounding of a laser gun firing continuously, lightning, and rattling groaning. Then silence, only interrupted by River's gun power charing. "My old fella didn't see that, did he? He gets ever so cross."

"So…" Rory said slowly, stepping back out of the TARDIS. Rose was standing next to it, staring down at the dead bodies around her. "What kind of Doctor are you?"

"Archaeology." River answered, pulling out her gun swiftly and shooting at the Silent behind her without taking her eyes off of Rory. "Love a tomb." River walked into the TARDIS, leaving a shocked Rory and Rose outside.

"You coming inside?" Rory asked after a full minute of silence. Complete and utter silence.

"Yeah, in a mo'." Rose closed her eyes, and heard Rory go back into the TARDIS. Rose felt something in her mind stir and she took a deep, steadying breath before opening her eyes back up to look at the carnage around her. She slowly made her way into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her and leaning against it.

"You called me 'stupid'." Rory was saying.

"I always call you stupid." Amy said, in a tone that clearly said 'stupid'.

"No, but- my face." Amy looked down then took hold of Rory's hand, opening up his clenched fist. Rose felt like she was intruding on yet another private moment but she had no where else to go since the couple was blocking the way out. "I wasn't sure who you were talking about, you know, me or.."

"Him?" Amy sounded incredulous.

"Well you did say 'dropped out of the sky'."

"It's a figure of speech, moron." Amy was suddenly grabbing Rory by the neck, pulling him close and Rose looked up, looking anywhere but at them. She could have sworn she heard the time and space machine laughing in her head.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"If you'll just, excuse me-" Rose said, quite awkwardly, moving past them.

"So, we're dropping her off, at a highly secured prison in the future?" Rose asked, trying to keep her eyes off of the monitor which showed River and the Doctor kissing. It clicked off a moment later and Rose felt a sense of relief, thanking the TARDIS mentally.

"Yeah, you'll get use to it." Rory said. "The not knowing, that is."

"Rory, I'm going to need thermocouplings," The Doctor ordered as he dematerlized the TARDIS. "The green ones and the blue ones."

"Okay, hold on." Rory walked off as Amy stepped down the stairs, walking towards the Doctor.

"So…" The Doctor said slowly, glancing over at Rose, who immediately pretended to be doing something of great importance. "You're okay?"

"Fine. Head's a bit weird. There's loads of stuff I can't quite remember."

"Aftereffect of the Silence. Natural enough. That's not what I was asking. You told me you were pregnant." Rose wondered just how many private conversations she would overhear. Wondered if she was a bit of the Tin Dog now.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I was. I mean, I-I thought I was. It turns out… I wasn't." Amy said, sounding slightly confused herself.

"No. Why did you tell me?"

"Because you're my friend. You're my best friend." Amy smiled and the Doctor, arms crossed, gave her a quick smile back before turning away from the red head.

"Did you tell Rory?"

"No."

"Amy, why tell me and not Rory?"

"Why do you think?"

"Don't know."

"I-I traveled with you in this TARDIS for so long, all that time. If I was pregnant for some of it, wouldn't it have had an effect? I didn't want to tell Rory his baby might have three heads or, like, a-a timehead or something."

"What's a timehead?" The Doctor asked, sounding extremely amused.

"I don't know, but what if it had one?" They were both laughing now.

"A timehead?"

"Shut up!" They laughed harder. "Oi, stupid face!"

"Yeah?" Rory asked, sounding slightly ashamed as he came out of the corridor. "Hello." The Doctor gave a little wave to Rory, trying to keep his grin off his face.

"I'm taking that away from you, if you're going to listen in all the time." Amy said, sounding annoyed.

"Okay, that's- that's a fair point, but you should've told me that you thought you were pregnant. I'm a nurse, I'm good with pregnancy." Rory's arms were held wide as he made his way up the stairs. The Doctor was grinning fully now, and Amy was chuckling.

"Not, as it turns out, that good. So, will you stop being stupid?" Amy asked, hugging the man tightly.

"Uh, no, never." Rory lifted up Amy, making her squeal in surprise. "I'm never, ever, going to stop being stupid."

"So, this little girl, it's all about her." The Doctor yelled, interrupting the couple. "Who was she? Or we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for adventures? Because I am. You only live once."

"That's all well and good Doctor but I need a shower and bed." Amy pushed away from the TARDIS, looking uncomfortable with the Doctor's last words.

"I second that." Rory agreed.

"Oh alright, shower and bed, off with you too. No idea how humans accomplish anything, spend most of their time on such tasks. Wasteful the lot of you, sleeping." The Doctor waved them off. Amy and Rory said goodnight to Rose before walking off to their bedroom. The Doctor, for the most part, had been doing a wonderful job of avoiding Rose. Rose had let it go, mostly because she had needed time to collect her thoughts and think about what to say.

The TARDIS made its familiar wheezing, shuttering noise and shuddered once as it landed. Rose raised an eye brow, wondering what the Doctor was up to because he usually kept his ship floating around when his companions slept.

"Well, I'm off to bed, g'nite Doctor." Rose pushed herself up, turning around and making a great show of walking towards her room.

"Aren't you going to step outside?" The Doctor rushed out. Rose turned around, watching as the Doctor wrung his hands in front of him. Rose turned on her heel and made her way to the door, opening it up and stepping outside.

It was a planet, an alien planet. They were parked up on a great big cliff where you could see for miles. To one side the ground was covered in these great, big brightly colored mushroom looking things, and she could barely make out little huts on top of the mushrooms. There was a wide, curving river that was more green than blue and on the other side was an expanse of what looked like rolling, blue hills.

"This is the nearest, inhabited planet to Earth. You lot go exploring in the opposite direction, out in one direction. There's nothing there, and the human race gets sad. Stop going out, stop exploring. Then this girl, brilliant 15 year old girl, builds all these pods and she sends them out and they go off in every direction for this school project. She gets a failing mark, has to take the class over again and she ends up dropping out of school, gets labeled as this lazy, unintelligent, troublemaker. Gets sent off to a reform school, that's what they do with all troubled kids in the future, reform schools." The Doctor pulls a face, making Rose smile. "They keep asking her to make a new science project but she just keeps making these pods and sending them out. Eventually she gets herself out, they can only hold them until they are legal adults. Gets a boring job and sends out a new pod, every year."

The Doctor points and Rose watches as a small, black object enters the atmosphere of the planet.

"Years after she's turned to dust, some people are putting together an exhibit. Showing off how people in the early 31st century lived, and they find this old computer. Takes them a bit of time but they get it up and running, and there are pictures from Pod, Designation Alpha Code 1, of a fully alive planet."

"So what do they do then?" Rose asked after a beat of silence, watching the object fall slowly to the ground.

"Go exploring. Takes them a fair amount of time to get here, those strange little creatures will be fully evolved, in the prime of their existence by the time humans make it here." The Doctor answers, digging around in his pockets before pulling out a binocular looking gadget, handing it over to Rose. Rose puts them up to her eyes, hearing them click and zoom in on the little huts on top of the giant mushrooms. The aliens are skinny and long limbed, with four arms and soft blue, nearly white skin.

"Kregrons!" Rose exclaims happily, recognizing the aliens even though the couple she had met looked a far bit different.

"You remember that?"

"Of course I remember, you told me, the leather jacket wearing you anyways." Rose pulls the binoculars away, her face scrunching together in thought as she tries and remembers the journey. It had been in a port town on another planet that she had met the crew of Zero Five Zero, a crew made up of humans and Kregrons. "You said they were the first aliens to really give the human race a chance, that they shared ideas and technology and helped each other grow into this huge, bountiful empire."

"It's a friendship that lasts until the last star goes out. Oh they have their rough patches, sometimes they go decades into open threats but they never stop being there for each other." The Doctor says proudly.

"What happened to the girl? The one who made the pods?" Rose asks and the Doctor beams down at her, like she asked exactly the right question.

"Oh, she ended up disappearing actually, no one really knows where she went. Though one of the people working on the exhibit did have a striking resemblance to her, even managed to work out how to get the computer up and running again. Became quite famous, happy too. Everyone thought she was a real genius." Rose laughed, causing the Doctor to grin.

"Doctor." Rose said softly. "What happened… you just- you sentenced them to death! All of them, and I know you don't remember fully, and Rory, Amy, and River are already on their way to completely forgetting but I remember. I remember the sounds they made as they were hit, the way their bodies fell to the ground, and River-" Rose stopped herself and took a deep breath, holding it in until her lungs felt like they were going to burst. "It's just goin' to take some time for me to get use to this new you."

"Rose, I never meant-" The Doctor stopped and started to wring his hands, a new nervous gesture for the new Doctor. "I'm just-" He tried to restart but stopped again. Rose sighed and pushed his hands apart before stepping closer and wrapping her arms around him. The Doctor's arms wrapped around her instantly, pulling her close.

"It's alright Doctor, well it really isn't." There was a couple minutes of quiet, just the Doctor holding onto Rose and Rose leaning against the Doctor. "So, explain to me, 2,000 years of waiting?" Rose asked and the Doctor immediately perked up.

"Rory the Roman! The last centurion, the boy who waited, now there's a great story Rose Tyler. We're going to need tea for this one, come on." The Doctor pulled Rose into the TARDIS, the door closing softly behind them.

**Hello all, thank you so much for the lovely reviews. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Rose entered her flat, tossing her keys into the little bowl by the door and toeing off her Torchwood, standard issued boots. She missed her trainers, easier on the feet, but during tactical missions she had to wear the uniform. So much black, she understood the reason behind it, but it didn't make her like it any better. Black boots with black cargo trousers tucked into them. Black jumper tucked into her trousers, held up by a black belt that held an array of pouches and gadgets she was issued. Her gun was back at Torchwood, they weren't allowed to carry around those guns since they were mostly alien tech. Black jacket over her jumper, hiding her gun holster, though there was a gun in that one, just a plain ordinary human gun though. No lasers. Rose hadn't used that one yet, seeing someone get ripped apart by a bullet was horrifying enough and she would rather stick to her alien stun gun than a human one with bullets._

_ "Doctor," Rose breathed out, feeling a bit foolish by her surprise. It had been a month, over a month actually, of him living in her flat. Before that though it had been years of coming home to a completely silent flat, the lights turned off from when she had left._

_ "Hello," The Doctor said, grinning manically though quickly looking away as he took in her state of dress. The Doctor liked her uniform even less than she did, but for different reasons. Rose still wasn't sure of those reasons, though she knew he wasn't overly fond of Torchwood. He had worked there for exactly 7 days, and she was sure he had only worked there for that long because of her._

_ "Got a new case?" Rose asked while making her way into her room, leaving the door open so she could hear the Doctor's response. She stripped out of her jacket, tossing it across her bed and then pulled out her gun, checking the safety, before putting it into the top drawer of her nightstand. The drawer was DNA coded, only she could open it._

_ "Several, weelll five to be exact. Plus two old ones that I haven't solved yet, thrilling, that. Thought they were going one way then- BAM, completely new direction." The Doctor turned to look into the room, since he was seated on the couch and the couch had its back towards the door, but he made a small noise in his throat when he realized Rose was removing her belt and quickly turned away._

_ "You have seven cases you are workin' on?" Rose asked, letting out a breath of relief when she had removed her pants. All the gadgets and gizmos attached to her belt really weighed a girl down._

_ "Yep," The Doctor answered and Rose looked out to the living room, watching as he bent over his computer and vast array of notes and documents covering the table. Rose smiled as she walked over to her wardrobe, pulling off her jumper and the tank top underneath it as she went._

_ After the Doctor left Torchwood he tried out several jobs. Bartender, mailman, fry cook, professor- the list went on. During one of his many jobs he had ended up working with this man, a man in his late 60's, who had been a Private Investigator for the majority of his life. A man with his own practice in his own building in London, a man who was looking to retire but did not want to just close up shop. People came to this bloke when they had no one else to turn to, when the police wouldn't listen. Then he worked with the Doctor and after that case offered him his business._

_ The Doctor loved it. Even though a lot of his cases involved around missing pets, it was usually the spouse, he enjoyed his work. Did it very well actually._

_ Rose, now wearing pink plaid pajama bottoms and a green jumper that looked far too big for her, climbed over the back of the couch and sat down in the only available, open space. Which happened to be right next to the Doctor, as if someone had cleared off that exact spot for this exact purpose. The Doctor, now wearing his specs, noted the jumper with a grin that could only be described as satisfied._

_ "Most of these will be solved by the end of the week, but there's one that's going to take me out of town for a bit." The Doctor bent his head back over his work, scribbling messily on a post it note before attaching it to the front of a manila folder that was positively bursting with papers._

_ "How far out of town?" Rose asked in a voice that sounded, even to her own ears, merely curious but her heart had picked up speed._

_ "Cuba."_

_ "And for how long?" Rose asked, her voice gone softer now as she picked at a loose thread on the jumper._

_ "Two weeks, maybe three tops." The Doctor stopped his fiddling with papers and sat back, taking in the human girl at his side. Rose felt his eyes on her but she didn't look up, didn't want to see the look in his face. "You could always come with me?"_

_ "Really?" Rose asked, her eyes clashing with his and she watched a bright smile light up his face in response to her._

_ "Of course, might take us to other places besides Cuba, oh I'm guess Cuba then Haiti and Barbados, it gets a bit tricky after that. I think, if I'm clever and I'm very clever, me, we should end up in Suriname." The Doctor listed off, sounding more excited with each passing moment. Rose was a bit ashamed to realize she didn't know where any of those places were, but then again, when travelling with the Doctor you could be heading to Bristol and end up in Stornoway._

_ "And after that?" Rose asked with a tongue touched smile that had the Doctor beaming away at her._

_ "Not sure!" The Doctor exclaimed excited. "Your choice. Think you can get the time off of work?"_

_ "I think I can move some things around," Actually Rose hadn't taken one single day off since she started working at Torchwood. Even the day she was stuck on a beach in Norway with this new, fantastic, half-human, half-alien man she was still on Torchwood's time. Everyone had wanted her to take off time after she got back but Rose didn't listen. Of course, three weeks off would probably be pushing it. She just wouldn't tell them then._

_ "Brilliant! You've got four days Rose Tyler, then off to another adventure." The Doctor was up and bounding around the flat, pulling a laughing Rose behind him._

Rose woke with a start and inhaled deeply, forcing herself to relax and take in her surroundings. She was in her room, aboard the TARDIS. With a glance at the time piece around her wrist, a watch she still hadn't given back to the Doctor and he hadn't asked for back, she realized she had been asleep for four hours and 29 minutes.

Four and a half hours was all it took for the Doctor to be erased from her life, from the entire universe. Rose never slept more than four and a half hours a night now. She always woke up before that, her heart racing, blood pumping and pounding in her ears.

Rose pushed herself to her feet while simultaneously pushing back the memories that her dreams brought up. She didn't dream of her half-Time Lord Doctor every night. Sometimes her dreams were blissfully empty, and sometimes they were filled with leather jackets or a man with two hearts in a pin stripe suit.

As Rose walked into the en suite, turning the water to hot and stripping out of her clothes, she allowed herself to remember what happened. It had been Cuba, Haiti, then Barbados but they had ended up in a jail in Honduras, shipped off to a Torchwood facility in Florida with the express order to stay there. Somehow, both would say; amnesia, ninjas, aliens, they ended up Chile, trekking down to the tip of South America and finally being found in Cabo de Hornos National Park, holed up in a tiny cabin.

Up until that point, before the trip, Rose had been trying to ease her way back in with the Doctor. She was trying to figure out this new Doctor with an old face. But the trip, with all it's running and hand holding and stealing onto boats and meeting new and fantastic people in new and fantastic, and yes, sometimes dangerous, places had made her realize he was the Doctor. Sure he had new habits, like the fact he loved gossip and blurted out his feelings, but he was still the same man. Still rude and not ginger with a big gob and great hair that didn't lose any of its greatness even after four days on the run, sweating, and with no showers.

Rose closed her eyes and rubbed at them until there were black spots in her vision. It hurt more than she thought possible when she lost him. It burned even now, a deep feeling that left her hallow inside.

The water would never run cold, no matter how long Rose stayed in there, so she forced herself to stand up straight and get out. She felt a familiar hum in the corner of her mind as she wrapped a big yellow towel around herself, and she reached out to touch the wall, thankful for the ship.

Once she was comfortably dressed in jeans, trainers, and a blue cardigan over a white tank top she made her way out of the room and down the corridor. She could already hear the familiar sound of the Doctor fussing over the console, the soft buzz of his sonic screwdriver as he worked while everyone else slept.

"Hello," Rose greeted as she stepped on the stairs that led underneath the TARDIS console. The Doctor was sitting in a hammock chair, his tweed jacket abandoned, and sporting some mad scientist type goggles. He stopped fiddling with wires and beamed over at her.

"Excited for the next big adventure, Rose Tyler? I'm afraid we'll have to wait. Rory should be up in another two hours, but Amy tends to need a solid eight hours or she's a right terror." The Doctor hopped out of the chair, nearly falling into one of the many holes before pushing the goggles up and shooting a frightened look upstairs. "Don't tell her I said that."

"Your secret's safe with me." Rose promised, laughter lacing her voice. She reached up and slid the goggles of the Doctors head. Even though she had been careful, her fingers still caressed his hair, which she definitely did not note was extremely soft.

Rose placed the goggles over her eyes and blinked rapidly when there was a bright light, like a camera flash. A soft whirring noise emitted from the goggles and her eyes refocused. She let out a gasp when they did focus properly, staring at the Doctor.

"They're x-ray?" Rose asked as she stared in wonder. She saw what made up the Doctor. The firing of electrons and atoms and other things she didn't know the name for, they sparkled like tiny galaxies inside of the Time Lord.

"Yes, well no, allows me to see electricity that runs through the TARDIS, bits of time vortex, find disrupted wires, never really thought to use them on a person." The Doctor said thoughtfully, though with an amused note in his tone. Rose reached out to trace the pulsing lights that made up the alien but her own hand caught her attention. It was made up of the same brilliant blues and purples and greens like the Doctor, but there was gold running through her, soft and pulsing. Somehow apart of her, yet completely separate.

"We really are made up of stardust, aren't we?" Rose asked in utter wonder, remembering the time the Doctor had told her that. She softly pressed her hand against the Doctor's chest, feeling the cloth of his shirt under her palm, but she saw a great, sparkling galaxy where her fingers pressed against his left heart. The gold spiraling in her own body burned a little brighter in contact with the Doctor.

"Watch carefully," The Doctor commanded softly. Rose couldn't make out his expression, but she heard the happiness in his voice.

Rose pulled back her hand and watched. She let out a breathy laugh as the galaxies, because that was the only way she could put what she was seeing to words, that made up the Doctor burned brighter, a vibrant color that pulsed within him.

"Kicked in my respiratory bypass system, allows me to go without breathing for longer periods of times than most humans can." The Doctor stated proudly. "Also raised my temperature and-" He let out a soft squeak as Rose's hand came up to his face. Her touch was feather light, just the barest of pressure from the tips of her fingers. She felt warm skin and soft, such soft hair, under her fingertips but all she could see was his brain, and the pulsing connections that carried his thoughts and commands throughout his body.

Rose watched the soft, golden glow spread as if it were reaching for the Doctor. Something in the Doctors brain was sparking, lighting up brilliantly. Rose was so close now she could feel his breath on her face but she couldn't make herself stop. She ran her fingertips over his cheek, watching his mind light up vibrantly. She tapped his nose, watching another part flare to life. Rose laughed then gasped as his whole brain lit up.

Something caught the corner of her eye. Rose turned her head and inhaled deeply.

"Look at you," Rose whispered in awe at the TARDIS that pulsed with golden tendrils. It was so different from the galaxies that made up herself and the Doctor, looking more like flowing water. It spread throughout the console, but the light didn't end there. It weaved its way through the walls and up into the high ceiling and flowed underneath her feet.

If Rose had any doubt in her mind that this ship wasn't alive it would have surely been crushed right then. Rose reached up, aiming for a small, twisting tendril of golden light and she took a step towards it, wondering if she could feel it against her hand. But when her foot should have come down on ground, it kept going.

She was falling through one of those bleedin' holes!

Rose's heart slammed into her chest, her breath caught, but just as quickly, she felt deceptively strong arms wrap around her waist and yanked her against a chest. Rose is laughing as she struggles to find her balance again and she's watching the sparkling, spiraling galaxies that make up the Doctor's pulse and brighten as she's trying to get a hold of her giggles while pressed against him.

He's the one who removes the goggles, slipping them up into a comfortable position on her forehead. She takes her eyes time to adjust and suddenly she's grinning up into deep set, green eyes.

"Hello," Rose greets happily, trying to get her breathing under control when she's pressed against his front and her hand is resting just between his two hearts and she can feel the alien but so familiar double beat of them.

"Hello." The Doctor's answering smile is enough to send her into another fit of giggles, though she's not quite sure what's so funny.

"What's with the holes anyways, Doctor?" Rose finds herself asking, though that isn't at all what she thought she'd be saying when she opened her mouth.

Rose had to have a serious sit down with the Doctor. She kept finding herself distracted though. Distracted by the way this new body of his did not fit so perfectly against hers like the last one, but how quickly they both adjusted themselves to make up for that. Distracted by brilliant galaxies that made up him and sad, distant looks he got on his face when he thought no one was looking.

But Rose needed to talk to him about genocide of an entire race. About Doctor River Song, the imprisoned murderer and woman who used a gun like it was an extension of her arm. They needed to talk about what exactly happened after the second trip to Bad Wolf Bay. And so many other issues that were rapidly popping up.

She meant to bring up any of those topics, any of them. What she didn't mean to do was flirt with him, to end up leaning against him and wanting to stay there. Rose Tyler had made the decision, after three months spent alone in the TARDIS, to be nothing more than a companion. She would not develop feelings for this new Doctor. But what she didn't count on was that she already had feelings for him, he was different, yes, but he was still very much her Doctor.

"Holes?" The Doctor asked, honestly confused before blinking quickly at her, then setting her on her feet, a good arms length away from him. Rose adjusted the goggles on her head, attempting to hide her grin as he nearly fell back into one of those holes. "Oh yes! Holes! Well, no, not holes, not at all actually. They are slides."

"Slides? Are you messin' with me?" Rose sputtered out through laughter at his serious face.

"Rose Tyler, would I lie about something like slides? Water slides to be exact, well, some of them have water, not all, but they all lead to water. To the pools. I kept losing the pools, and the library, and the observatory, so I had the old girl put in the slides. Slides are cool." The Doctor pulled on his suspenders, looking immensely pleased with himself as Rose laughed. "What are you doing?" The Doctor asked, his voice going a couple octaves higher as he watched Rose remove her cardigan.

"Never been on a water slide, me." Rose answered, tossing her cardigan down before toeing off her shoes. After taking off her socks, she put the goggles and the Doctor's watch inside her left shoe for safe keeping. Rose considered stripping down to her knickers, but the Doctors eyes were already bugging out of his eyes and she was still wearing jeans and a tank top. "You goin' to join me?" Rose asked, her toes curling but she took a step forward, right into a dark hole before he could answer.

There was a moment of weightlessness before she was suddenly dragged down. A surprised scream ripped from her throat and then she was laughing, woo-ing loudly as she slid down the curving slide.

Suddenly she was weightless again, and bright lights assaulted her vision after adjusting to the dark tunnel. Rose had enough sense to close her mouth and eyes before she hit the water. She came up sputtering and laughing.

There was a great deal of noise as a body went right over Rose's head and landed in the water with a big splash. The Doctor appeared a moment later, hair flat against his head and grinning like a loon. Rose immediately made her way over to dunk him back in the water and let out a surprised yelp as he picked her up and tossed her a ways away. They went on like that for a while, splashing and dunking each other, having impromptu swimming races and who could make the biggest splash contests.

There was a squishy wall in the middle of the pool and Rose held onto it, slightly out of breath. She couldn't touch the bottom of the pool no matter where she was at and her wet clothes seemed to be constantly trying to drag her down. The Doctor swam up to the other side of the wall and leaned against it, pushing his wet hair off of his face and giving her a look.

"Out with it then," The Doctor finally said and Rose gave him her most innocent look.

"Out with what, Doctor?" She asked, though they both knew it was an act. Rose was hesitant to end the mood they had going. She hadn't laughed like that in a very long time, but she knew there were things that needed to be discussed and now was as good as any time.

"You just sentenced an entire race to be-" Rose barely stopped herself from saying 'exterminated'. It was the perfect use of the word, but she didn't want to hurt the Doctor. "Murdered. A genocide of hundreds, perhaps thousands of aliens. You didn't give them a chance at all, you didn't try to speak to them or find any commonality or anything. You just- you stood there and made jokes and ordered their deaths as if it was nothing. As if an entire race of people meant nothing. I know what they did was wrong Doctor, but there were other options, there had to be other options, but you didn't even consider them. You didn't even try." The Doctor watched Rose patiently, not with anger or bitterness, and it made Rose go on.

"And then there was that little girl. You just abandoned her, left her on Earth by herself. She had been orphaned, then taken by aliens and she was scared and alone and you just wanted to go off onto another adventure." Rose rushed out, feeling her own guilt build up because hadn't she done the same? She had just swum around instead of trying to find her, instead of trying to help her at all. Rose stopped herself from bringing up River Song, on that point Rose could not say anything.

"Do you remember Christmas at your mum's?" The Doctor asked and Rose was thrown by his question.

"With your new body and the invasion and tea and Lion King quotes? Yeah, think I remember that one, me." Rose answered, earning a small grin from the Doctor.

"You remember what came before the full out invasion?" The Doctor asked and Rose took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and think of the question. The Doctor wouldn't be asking her this if it wasn't important.

"The pilot fish?" Rose asked and by the look on the Doctor's face she knew she got it right. "What's that have to do with anything? Wait, are you sayin' that the Silence are like them? Like pilot fish?" Rose asked.

"Not exactly, those were mechanical mostly. The Silence are made up of flesh and bone, but they don't have independent thought, they can't think for themselves. All that technology, they could have left if they choose to do so, but they didn't. They had to have humans go to the moon to have a space suit, and then they used that spacesuit. Didn't have the forethought to build one themselves." The Doctor answered and Rose thought it over for a moment, adjusting herself on the wall and biting her lip softly.

"So who's controllin' them, then?" Rose asked softly and the Doctor nodded.

"No idea, at least not yet." The Doctor answered. "You can accomplish a lot in four hours, especially me, because I'm quite brilliant. Talked to Canton, couple of months after we left, for him at least. Only found 11 bodies of the Silence, 11. Someone moved them off world."

"And the little girl?" Rose asked.

"Gone, don't know where to. Don't know if the same people who took the Silence took her also, tried to search for her, 118 different ways to be exact but there's not the slightest clue as to where she went off to. Left a machine with Canton, if she comes back to Earth he'll know, and then I'll know." The Doctor was no longer looking at her, he was tracing circles into the water and Rose moved forward, pushing herself up onto the wall so she could press a kiss to his temple.

"'m sorry, Doctor," Rose said softly, feeling bad for doubting him.

"Don't be, I'm not sure I really deserve it, Rose, I have done some-" The Doctor swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat. "I've done some terrible things, it's been a while since anyone's called me out on them. I think you'll be good for me." The Doctor grinned up at her and Rose returned the grin.

"You don't think 'm being," Rose shrugged and the Doctor pushed her to continue. "Annoyin' or pushy?"

"Ah, Rose Tyler, you can be pushy, that's true, but annoying? Nah, never." Rose let the pushy comment go because she knew as well, if not better, than the Doctor how truly pushy she had become in the past couple years without him. She had grown up quite a bit. Rose sometimes had to make quite difficult choices when it came to Torchwood and she had taken that leadership role for a while now, it was difficult to hand that back over to the Doctor. Perhaps they could meet on some middle ground.

"You know what we need?" Rose asked, grinning toothily. The Doctor looked at her questionably.

"Breakfast food, never met a problem that couldn't be solved with breakfast foods." Rose said before dunking the Doctor and swimming over to the side of the pool. She pulled herself up with agility and grace that was only slightly hampered by her soaking jeans.

The Doctor pulled himself up with considerably less grace, making Rose laugh as he swept a hand through his hair, pushing the generous amount of hair this new regeneration had out of his face. The Doctor gave her a look before pushing two fingers against her chest. Rose's eyes went wide as she was pushed back into the pool. Sometimes she forgot that beneath that lanky frame the Doctor was quite strong. Stronger than a human man his size would be.

Rose came up sputtering with thoughts of revenge, but the Doctor was already walking out the door, whistling to himself. Rose pulled herself out of the pull with less grace than before, but then again there was no one to see her flop inelegantly out, and hurried to the door.

She stepped into a small room as the door slid close behind her. Warm air circulated around her and she held her arms out, letting it dry her off. As Rose ran a hand through her quickly drying hair, she thought about this new Doctor and her new resolve to stay only friends with him. His last two bodies had been quite flirty also, the one with the leather less so than the pinstriped one. So perhaps that was just something that continued over to all his bodies? Sarah Jane had travelled with him in another regeneration and she had been quite in love with him. He probably flirted quite a bit in that body, too.

Rose stepped out of the room after being completely dried off. Her bare toes curled against the cold glass floor as she looked down the long corridors but saw no sign of the Doctor. Shrugging, she set off in the direction she believed the kitchen was. Swimming around had left her famished.

Every time Rose was tempted into believing that might be something between the Doctor and her she reminded herself of River Song. How easily the Doctor and River flirted was a harsh reminder that she couldn't fall down that same road again. She wasn't 19 anymore, and couldn't jump up from heartbreak the same way her younger self did. She had lost too much and she needed this to work.

Friends it was then.

"Oh, hello." Rose greeted happily as she swung into the kitchen to see one Rory Williams sitting at the table. Rory lifted his mug up in greeting and Rose left him to it. Sometimes she didn't feel like a complete person until she had her first cuppa in the morning, so she completely understood Rory's inability to speak properly.

Rose made herself a cup of tea before setting up everything for a big breakfast.

"Do you want some help?" Rory asked, his words deeper than usual with half sleep. Rose grinned over at him.

"Can you cook?" Rose asked and saw Rory slowly shake his head. Rose didn't hold that against him too much, she had only started cooking in the past couple years herself, and she was still a bit rubbish at it. She tended to get side tracked and ended up burning most things, or she got bored and pulled the food off the oven before it was fully cooked.

Rose tried not to think about the past, but it came bubbling back as she set about making eggs. She had taught herself to cook the basics when she moved out of Pete and her mums house. The Doctor, the one with pinstripes and a new fancy for saying 'wizard', and her never had learned to cook before that. So they ate out a lot. Rose realized that while there were good things to not being 20 anymore, there were also bad things too. Like realizing she could not just eat whatever she wanted to anymore. She had been quite a mess when she realized none of her jeans fit anymore and the Doctor had laughed because he had been secretly getting his pants let out. Rose had tried to stay angry at him for laughing when she was near tears, but then he had lifted his shirt and patted his belly and Rose couldn't contain her giggles any longer.

Rose smiled to herself at the memory.

"What's that smell?" Rory asked and Rose cursed as she attempted to scrap the now burnt eggs off of the pan.

"Budge up, Tyler, I've got this." The Doctor pushed some clothes into Rose's arms before gently moving her aside.

"You can't cook!" Rose accused, only vaguely realizing the clothes she held were her own. The Doctor had gone back to the console room to grab them for her.

"Can too." The Doctor shot back but his hands just hovered over the ingredients.

"Liar." Rose grinned but she dropped down in a chair and started to pull on her socks.

"No, just took me a moment to remember, big old brain like mine, stuffed full of important things, Rose Tyler. Takes a mo' to recall some things." The Doctor, true to his word, set about making breakfast. Rose stopped putting on her shoe and looked over at Rory, who smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"Amy is a horrible cook, I'm pretty good, but don't tell either of them or I'll be forced to make all the meals." Rory admitted. The Doctor was too busy trying to be impressive to listen closely. Rose laughed and put on her shoes before pulling on her cardigan.

"You made my pockets bigger on the inside!" Rose said with a laugh as her whole hand disappeared in the cardigans pocket. She pulled out the watch and goggles and looked up just in time to see the Doctors pleased smile. "Though I don't know why, the next trip it'll probably catch on fire."

Her cardigan did not catch on fire during the trip aboard a pirate ship. Though she did end up wet again, and no matter how many times she washed her clothes and hair she still smelt the pirate ship. That's something she never guessed while watching Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean, how awful a pirate must smell. They were surrounded by water, how could they smell that horrid? Rose would never know.

Rose also questioned the validity of setting up a bunch of pirates with a spaceship, but she had let it slide. History said that the pirate ship had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, its occupants gone, and she had enough dealings with Reapers to question whether they should have kept the pirates on Earth. Maybe with that son of his the Captain would be a better man, probably not, but Rose liked to think positively.

Rose had woken after getting four hours of sleep. She had showered, again, using a generous amount of shampoo to try and scrub out the smell her hair had picked up on the ship, before giving it up as a lost cause and stepping out of the shower. After brushing her hair and teeth with a comb and tooth brush that were hers from six years ago, she considered what she had been pushing off.

Rose Tyler needed to go shopping. She was a bit afraid to ask the Doctor, though she couldn't pinpoint why exactly. He wouldn't mind dropping her off at a mall, would he? Part of her wanted him to come with her, but she knew the chances of that were slim. But she couldn't continue to wear clothes that had fit her just fine when she was 19 but now seemed odd and misshapen. She had also ruined her last pair of tennis shoes on the pirate ship and all she could find were a pair of pink ballet slip-ons, which while rather cute, were not optimal for running.

Rose changed into a pair of jeans and a soft pink jumper that was not her own, but something the TARDIS had provided from the wardrobe room. Her mind made up, she strode confidently to the console room.

"Doctor?" Rose questioned, losing some of her confidence.

"Hello, Rose Tyler!" Rose glanced around before looking up to see the Doctor suspended near the ceiling of the TARDIS.

"What are you doing?" Rose laughed, losing some of her nervousness. She had gained a lot of confidence in herself, in her abilities and her intelligence, but with that aged wisdom came the loss of the boldness her 20-year-old self had had.

"Fixing-" The TARDIS made a low noise, as if making her opinion known quite well that he was indeed fixing absolutely nothing. "Oi! I am too fixing it! I'm turning off the bloody warning lights, they never stop." The Doctor yelled back, his legs kicking uselessly in the air. Rose laughed again and made her way around the console, trying to figure out just what exactly was holding him up in the air.

"Can you come down here for a mo'?" Rose asked and gasped when the Doctor was suddenly hurdling towards the ground. He stopped right before slamming into the floor and that was when Rose realized it was a rope holding him up, tied around his waist like a rock climber.

"What's wrong, Rose?" The Doctor pushed up a new pair of goggles that had little lights attached to the sides to get a better look at his companion. He struggled with the rope for a moment before unhooking it and falling in an ungainly heap on the ground. Rose laughed again, more of her tension easing out as she helped the Doctor to his feet.

"I need to go shopping," Rose said with a smile, her hand wrapped around the Doctors bicep. He was surprisingly wiry, this one. "Everything that I have is either borrowed from the TARDIS or something I left behind when I was a teenager, and most of that is covered in grime or goo or god knows what else."

"Tretch!" The Doctor ran around the console excitedly. Rose grabbed onto the railing as the TARDIS began to lurch around.

"What?" Rose yelled to be heard over the noise.

"Tretch Outland Mall for Intergalactic Travelers! It's a mall the size of a small planet, about the size of your moon actually. Has everything anyone could ever need, no matter species or race or gender!" The TARDIS landed with a wheeze and the Doctor pulled off his goggles, shoving them into his trouser pocket before grabbing his jacket from over the jumper seat.

"You're comin' with me?" Rose asked in surprise, standing up straight and letting go of the railing.

"Of course, the mall is perfectly safe, but knowing you, you'll manage to find some problem." The Doctor mock scowled at her. "You'll see a sad woman and next thing you know, you're comforting her and I'm trying to find her wife who's been kidnapped by Elliots." The Doctor held out his hand, grinning. Rose laced her fingers with his and he pulled her out the door.

"Oh look at that, it actually is a mall." Rose said in awe as she glanced up and up at the multi-layers of the building they were in.

"Of course, it is! That's where I said we were going, didn't I?" The Doctor huffed out before pulling her along.

"Well you said we had only been gone 12 hours but it had been 12 months." Rose said, tongue in teeth as she looked up at him.

"Are you ever going to let that one go? That was two regenerations ago, anyways! I'm a whole new man, a new new me!" The Doctor groaned and Rose laughed.

"Okay then, letting that go." Rose held back her grin as the Doctor beamed away at her. "So explain again how you bumped into a child Amy, promised to be gone five minutes and returned- how long did it take you to get back again?" Rose started laughing again as the Doctor rubbed his face.

"That's not fair, I was coming off of a brand new regeneration! I didn't even have the steering down properly, and there was a little girl with a crack in her wall, and the TARDIS was unstable!"

"Excuses, excuses." Despite her teasing the Doctor was smiling down at her, looking pleased as pie.

"Aren't we supposed to be shopping?" The Doctor asked, pulling her into a tube. "Designation: Human." The Doctor called out and before Rose could question him they were transported to another floor.

"Transmat beam?" Rose asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, they've got areas blocked off for each species. You could spend forever just wandering around, trying to find a shirt that didn't have eight sleeves or two neck holes. Makes it easier, this way."

The Doctor ended up buying Rose a whole new wardrobe. He had complained that ten trainers were too much but Rose wouldn't budge. While his shoes always made it out of the clear, hers were lucky to make it past one trip. She also got toiletries and new knickers, which the Doctor had studiously ignored, even after she picked up a mostly see-through, lacey black number and laughed when the Doctor had nearly given himself whip lash turning away so quickly.

They came back to the TARDIS, laughing and grinning like loons, to see Rory poking his head out the doors hesitantly. Rory smiled when he saw them before Amy pushed past him.

"Where have you two been?" Amy asked, crossing her arms when the Doctor tried to push some bags into her arms. Rory took a couple from Rose before walking into the TARDIS with the blonde woman. "We've been looking all over the TARDIS for you."

"Rose needed some new clothes, and there was a sale. Buy one wardrobe, get the second half off. Couldn't pass up that!" The Doctor strode into the TARDIS with Amy hot on his heels.

"Easy for you to say, not really your money." Rose called over her shoulder as she made her way down the hall to her room.

"You didn't have trouble spending it! Anyways, I have money, just don't know where it is at the moment." The Doctor looked over at Amy's incredulous snort. "Over 900 years old and you think I haven't any money? Loads of it actually, somewhere- lost it sometime during my eighth self, he had a bit of a memory problem." They dropped everything into Rose's room and she quickly changed into a new pair of trainers before walking down the hall where the Doctor and the couple were already waiting. The Doctor was half way through telling a story already.

"And then we discovered it wasn't the Robot King after all, it was the real one." The Doctor explained to Rory, who was sitting in a jumper seat and looking disbelieving. "Fortunately, I was able to reattach the head."

"Do you believe any of this stuff?" Rory asked, looking over at Amy and Rose. Amy walked down the stairs while Rose took a seat on one, looking amused.

"I was there." Amy deadpanned. Just then something starting beeping.

"Oh! It's the warning lights! I was going to get rid of those, Rose Tyler, but you interrupted me! They never stop!" The Doctor started pushing buttons angrily as Rory got off his seat and made his way over to his wife. The Doctor kicked the console and the TARDIS made an angry sound.

"Hey, you're still thinking about it, aren't you?" Rory asked Amy. Rose decided this wasn't a conversation she was suppose to be hearing, especially as Amy gave the blonde and the alien a frantic look as she shushed her husband.

Rose stood up and made her way towards the Doctor, giving the couple some privacy. She had heard too many private conversations in the past couple days and she really didn't need to know anymore secrets. Especially since Amy very obviously did not want her to know either.

"Probably shouldn't kick her, she's going to start shocking you again." Rose warned but it came just too late as the Doctor pulled his hand away with a cringe. "Told ya so." Rose grinned in the face of the angry Time Lord, but he didn't have time to retort as there was a knock at the door. The Doctor spun around in the direction of the door, eye brows raised and eyes wide.

"What was that?" Amy asked, coming up the stairs.

"The door. It knocked." The Doctor took a couple hesitant steps towards said door.

"Right, we _are_ in deep space?" Rory asked as he leaned against the railing.

"Very, very deep." The Doctor answered as a knock came again.

"Is that _Shave and a Haircut_?" Rose asked, grinning despite herself.

"Rose Tyler, are you amused?"

"No, of course not, this is a very serious situation, strange knockin' in deep, deep space. Strange knockin' in the rhythm of _Shave and a Haircut_. Is there such thing as intergalactic girl scouts? Do they sell thin mints?" Rose asked, hardly containing herself. The Doctor, despite his worries, couldn't stop from grinning at her.

"Somebody's knocking." The Doctor's grin widened. He was at the door now and he knocked lightly against it, looking like a little kid on Christmas. Three knocks tapped politely back.

"Bad guys don't tend to knock, do they?" Rose asked.

"They do if they're British." The Doctor opened the door slowly and Rose hopped over, standing on her toes to see over his shoulder. There was a floating, glowing box. "Oh, come here. Come here, you scrumptious little beauty." The Doctor held out his hand but the glowing box, making a small buzzing noise, darted inside the TARDIS, past a shocked Rory and Amy. It then bounced off the Doctor's chest and Rose laughed despite herself.

"A box?" Rory asked, clearly completely miffed. The box spun around Rose, buzzing in almost a happy way and Rose grabbed it. It was vibrating in her hands and she handed it over to the Doctor, whose face was full of wonder as he picked himself off the ground.

"Doctor, what is it?" Amy asked from her place near the console.

"I've got mail!" The Doctor hurriedly made his way up to the console. "Time Lord Emergency Messaging System. In an emergency, we wrap up our thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there, and it's one of the good ones!" The Doctor bounced around excitedly, waving the box in clutched in his hand.

"You said there weren't any other Time Lords left." Rory said, arms crossed over his chest and standing next to his wife.

"There aren't, no Time Lords left anywhere in the universe. But the universe isn't where we're going!" The Doctor tossed the box to Amy. "See that snake? The mark of the Corsair! Fantastic bloke!" He grabbed the box and handed it to Rose, watching as it glowed a little brighter. "He had the snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. He didn't feel like himself unless he had that tattoo or herself, a couple of times." The Doctor spun around and started up with his happy dance around the console again. Rose ran her thumb over the sign of the snake, feeling the box vibrate warmly in her hand. "She was a bad girl!" The TARDIS sparked violently and everyone had to hold on for dear life.

"What is happening?!" Rory yelled.

"We are leaving the universe!" The Doctor screamed back, though with an edge of manic happiness, only barely managing to cover up the despair underneath. Rose tucked the box protectively against her and used her other hand to hold onto the console.

"How can you leave the universe?" Amy asked, sounding pained.

"With enormous difficulty!" The Doctor answered. "Right now, I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly! Goodbye, swimming pool! Goodbye, scullery! Sayonara, Squash Court 7." The TARDIS sparked again, tossing Rose back. She hit the railing and lost her breath, but she used her free arm to wrap herself around it, closing her eyes tightly against the sparks coming off the console.

They landed with a great deal of noise and movement. Electricity cackled and the sound of the engines powering down could be heard.

"Okay, okay." Amy said worriedly as she methodically pushed her hair off of her face. "Where are we?"

"Outside the universe. Where we've never, ever been." Suddenly there was a low, dim noise as the lights started to go out. Rose stayed on her spot on the ground, lit up by the glowing box she still held clutched in her hand. Her heart felt like it couldn't make up its mind whether to beat right out of her chest or break all together. He had left their universe? He could have done that all along?

"Is that meant to be happening?" Rory asked, his voice slightly raised.

"The power, it's draining." The Doctor said, sounding worried himself. "Everything's draining! But it can't! That's-" He was frantically pushing buttons, pulling levers but the room was growing all the more dim. "That's impossible."

"What is that?" Rory asked in a more even toned voice, as if the Doctor's panic had made the man pull himself together. Amy pushed away from the console and kneeled next to Rose.

"You okay?" Amy asked and all Rose could do was nod. Was she okay? She had just learnt that the Doctor had a way of leaving the original universe all along. Was she okay?

"It's as if the Matrix, the soul of the TARDIS, has just vanished." The Doctor said, answering Rory's earlier question. A beeping continued on as the lights finally died. There were a couple things still beeping on the console, back up lights underneath the floor were still on. "Where would it go?"

The Doctor made his way over to the door. Amy helped Rose up and all three companions followed him out.

"What kind of trouble was your friend in?" Amy asked.

"He was in a bind, a bit of a pickle, sort of distressed." The Doctor answered. Rose tried to pull her crashing thoughts to a stop as she noted they had stepped out into some kind of ship graveyard. Something felt eerily familiar about those hulking beast of ships.

"Aw, you can just say you don't know." Amy said mockingly. Rose felt the corner of her lips twitch up as they picked their way through the graveyard. She pressed the box against her chest, feeling the warmth spread, feeling something tickle inside her head. She felt the sudden onslaught of dizziness that usually accompanied a black out. She fumbled in her pocket for a moment before pulling out her inhaler and using it quickly. The dizziness edged away but the tickle in the back of her mind, and the bone crushing numbness still remained. That inhaler-like object the Doctor had made her really helped with the blackouts.

"What is this place, the scrapyard at the end of the universe?" Rory asked.

"Not end of, outside of." The Doctor replied quickly, and a bit snappishly. He turned around and tossed an arm around Rory's shoulder, pulling him away from the direction they both had been walking.

"How can we be outside the universe?" Rory asked, going along with the Doctor as if this was a usual occurrence. "The universe is everything." Amy was going through the junk on the ground and something caught Rose's attention. Right by her foot, a little clear crystal surrounded by a gold ban that looked so familiar. She knelt down and picked it up, dusting the dirt off before she realized what it was. A power cell, like the one the Doctor had found when they had fallen into Pete's world the first time. The tiny little power cell that had saved the TARDIS.

"Imagine a great, big soap bubble with one of those tiny, little bubbles on the outside." The Doctor explained, striding along with Rory.

"Okay," Rory nodded.

"But it's nothing like that." The Doctor let go of Rory as they stopped by the TARDIS. "Completely drained. Look at her."

"Wait, so we're in a tiny-bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger-bubble universe?" Amy asked, brandishing a spatula and leaning against a dryer.

"Yes. No! But if it helps, yes." The Doctor answered unhelpfully. "This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now this place-" The Doctor leaned down, picking some rubble off the ground. "What do we think, eh?" He tossed the bit of rubble up in the air. "Gravity's almost Earth-normal. Air's breathable. But it smells, like…" The Doctor trailed off as he hopped up into a bathing tube.

"Armpits." Amy supplied.

"Armpits." The Doctor nodded. Rose felt something tug at her mind and she turned away from the trio, glancing around before her eyes rested on one of the old ships. Half a ship really, but the half she saw was colossal. She imagined if that ship was whole it would probably be about the same size as the TARDIS was on the inside. Then something on the side of it caught her eye. She walked around, emergency box in one hand and dead power cell in the other, until she could clearly see what it was. It looked like half a snake.

"What about all this stuff? Where did this come from?" Rory asked from somewhere behind Rose.

"There's a rift. Now and then, stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe is a plughole, and we've just fallen down it." The Doctor said distractedly, his eyes travelling around until they landed on Rose, who was reaching up towards a ship, her fingers tracing a pattern he couldn't see from his spot. He made a move towards, her but then there was yelling.

"Thief! Thief! You're my thief!" Rose peeked around the half ship, watching as a pale woman with dark hair and an old looking dress came running down something that resembled a path.

"She's dangerous! Guard yourself!" Another female yelled out. The woman ran over to the Doctor, looking frantic. She tripped into the Doctor, who looked extremely surprised.

"Look at you! Goodbye!" She let go of the Doctor as quickly as she had grabbed on and shook her head. "No, not goodbye. What's the other one?" The strange woman grabbed a hold of the Doctor once again and kissed him roughly.

"Watch out, careful. Keep back from her." An oddly misshapen man said, sounding quite calm about the whole situation. As if this sort of thing happened daily. The strange woman was pulled away, leaving the Doctor looking shocked and gasping as he wiped his mouth and ran a hand through his hair, glancing at his companions.

"Welcome, strangers, lovely." The man greeted as the other, older woman shoved the dark haired woman away. Rose stayed in her spot, mostly hidden by the ship. "Sorry about the mad person."

"Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?" The Doctor asked, looking warily at the woman as she simply walked around the two oddly shaped people.

"Me. You're going to steal me. You have stolen me. You are stealing me. Oh, tenses are difficult, aren't they?" The dark haired woman asked and despite the wholly unusual circumstances Rose couldn't help a small smile. She sounded like the Doctor a bit. All rushing words and not really answering anything concrete. The Doctor, for his part, was running a hand through his hair again as he shot Amy and Rory a confused look. He was purposefully not looking at Rose, not giving away her spot.

"Oh, oh, we are sorry, my dove." The older woman said, leaning slightly to the side and sounding completely out of breath. "She's off her head." The woman touched Amy's hair briefly before spotting something. "They call me Auntie." Auntie shook the Doctor's hand.

"And I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's Uncle." The man introduced slowly. Rose was a bit far away but she could see their clothes seemed to be as misshapen and odd looking as they were. "Just keep back from this one, she bites!"

"Do I? Excellent." The strange, as yet to be named, woman asked. Once more by the Doctor and by Uncle. She latched onto the Doctor and he began to yell. Amy went to grab the woman but Rory made her stop. The woman stopped her biting and was pushed back by Auntie and Uncle.

"Ow!" The Doctor yelled, sounding put off. Though he was probably more angry about being confused, he didn't like it when other people knew more than he did.

"Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, only there's a winner."

"Sorry, she's doolally." Uncle said in the same tone of voice he had used to speak the whole time. Sounding neither sorry nor confused nor any other emotion.

"No, I'm not doolally. I'm… I'm…" She dragged out the 'm' sound, looking about as if someone could answer for her. The Doctor stepped closer, hands tucked into his suspenders, despite the fact that he had just gotten bitten. "It's on the tip of my tongue. I've just had a new idea bout kissing. Come here, you!" The woman made a leap for the Doctor who, smartly, ducked away and hid behind the Ponds, who guarded him gallantly.

From her safe spot, Rose could enjoy the scene. The box in her hand hummed softly, she wasn't quite sure what that meant, but she still felt that tickle in her brain. Psychic. That's what the Time Lords were, what the Doctor still was, and he had said these were psychic boxes. But perhaps it was in the Time Lords own language and that was why she couldn't get a clear message out of it? Because she didn't speak- what was it? Gal- something. Gali- the strange woman was right. It was on the tip of her tongue.

"Idris, no!"

"But now you're angry. No, you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry." The woman, Idris, said and Rose felt her fingers tighten against her own little box, felt something flutter inside.

"Sorry? The little what?" The Doctor asked, safe behind the Ponds. "Boxes?" But then he was stepped in front of them. Suddenly Idris was laughing as the Doctor stepped closer, as if he was inviting being bitten, or kissed, seemed to be a toss up with that one.

"Your chin is hilarious!" Idris said, grabbing said chin. "It means the smell of dust after rain." Idris said, now looking at Rory, all laughter gone.

"What does?" Rory asked.

"Petrichor."

"But I didn't ask."

"Not yet. But you will." Idris said, now looking at the Doctor with a slightly mad grin. "Wolf! Where's our wolf? How are we supposed to survive without our wolf?"

"No, no, Idris, you should have a rest." Auntie interrupted, missing the look that the Doctor threw over his shoulder at Rose, whose eye brows were raised.

"Rest, yes, yes, good idea. I'll just see if there's an 'off' switch." Idris then fell to the side, Rory managed to catch her just in time before she hit the ground.

"Is that it? She dead now. So sad." Uncle said, sounding not the least bit sad.

"She's still breathing." Rory said after he got Idris comfortable in a seat. The trio were facing away so they didn't see what Rose did, the Ood who had appeared.

"Nephew, take Idris somewhere she cannot bite people, hmm?" Uncle asked the Ood, who appeared to have glowing green eyes. The Doctor turned slowly and addressed the Ood.

"Oh, hello!" Both Amy and Rory jumped when they saw the Ood.

"Doctor, what is that?" Amy asked, hiding just slightly behind the Doctor.

"Oh, no, it's all right. It's an ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Hello, Ood!" Apparently he had never been chased through a space ship and air ducts by possessed Oods. Rose had long since forgiven them though, and she felt a pang of sadness because the Doctor had been unable to save them. Only had time for one trip. Rory gave a little finger wave, making Amy laugh and put her hand over his. "Can't you talk? Oh, I see. It's damaged. May I?" The Ood nodded and the Doctor opened the Ood's little orb. "It might just be on the wrong frequency."

"Nephew was broken when he came here. Well, he was half-dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us." Auntie explained by the Doctor was too focused on fixing the Ood's translator orb to pay attention to the odd woman. Rose wasn't too busy, and when the box pulsed in her hand she nearly could have sworn she felt anger. The orb turned green, and so did the box in Rose's hand.

"If you are receiving this message, please help us. Send a signal to the High Council." The voice was distinctly male, and very obviously scared. There were other voices behind that one, all talking at once. "Of the Time Lords on Gallifrey." The Doctor turned about and Rose's heart clenched painfully for him. "I am still alive. I don't know when I am." The voices were raising, talking over each other and nearly indistinguishable now. The orb stopped glowing green and so did the box, the glow from it nearly going out completely.

"What was that? Was that him?" Rory asked, sounding worried.

"No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's- it's not possible. That's- that's- who else is here?" Rose slid down the rubbish she had climbed upon to get a closer look at the side of the ship. Rose slipped the power cell into her pocket but kept a hold of the little box. She landed near the Ood, who leant her an arm when she nearly tripped. She smiled thankfully at him before moving over to the Doctor, slipping her hand into his. She was still hurt that he had a way to get to her, stuck in Pete's universe, but she would push away those feelings. For now. The Doctor gave her hand a firm squeeze, but didn't take his eyes off of Auntie and Uncle.

"Tell me, show me. Show me!" The Doctor demanded, taking a threatening step closer to the odd pair, but Rose held him back. He didn't try to fight her hold.

"Just what you see. Just the four of us. And the House." Auntie explained, shrugging. "Nephew! Will you take Idris somewhere safe, where she can't hurt nobody." Nephew nodded and walked over to Idris, easily picking her up.

"The House, what's the House?" The Doctor asked, his hand tightening around Rose's.

"The house is all around you, my sweets." Auntie answered while Uncle jumped up and down in his mismatched boots. "You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"Meet him?" Rory asked and Rose turned to him, watching as he looked like he was trying not to step too hard upon the ground. Good ol' Rory Williams.

"I'd love to." The Doctor answered softly, with none of his usual enthusiasm.

"Come, this way. Come, please, come." Uncle said, looking excited for the first time. Auntie turned and hobbled away, one hand on her lower back.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked. "What were those voices?" The couple hesitantly stepped forward.

"Time Lords. It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by, there are lots and lots of Time Lords." The Doctor said in that same soft, eerie voice before turning and walking away, pulling Rose along behind him absently.

They followed Auntie and Uncle underground.

"Come. Come, come. You can see House and he can look at you and-," Uncle mumbled, nearly to himself. The Doctor let go of Rose's hand so he could kneel down and look at a grating, softly glowing green beneath.

"I see." The Doctor said. "This asteroid is sentient."

"We walk on its back, breathe its air, eat its food." Auntie explained, sounding excited for the first time.

"Smell its armpits." Amy mumbled, making Rose grin.

"And do my will." Both Auntie and Uncle stood up straight, speaking as one, but with a voice that sounded nowhere near their own. The Doctor stood up, staring at the oddly shaped couple. "You are most welcome, Travelers."

"Doctor, that voice, that's the, um, the asteroid talking." Amy wondered out loud, taking a step back with her husband.

"Yes." The Doctor said shortly. "So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside- that's you."

"That is correct, Time Lord." House answered. Rose stepped close to the grating, looking down it, and wondered if this was a bit like the TARDIS. The ship was alive, in her own sense.

"Ah, so you've met Time Lords before."

"Many travelers have come through the rift. Like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break." House answered, through Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. The Doctor stepped closer to them.

"So there are Time Lords here, then." The Doctor said softly.

"Not anymore, but there have been many TARDISes on my back in days gone by." House answered. Rose felt a fluttering, nearly frantic and looked down at her hand, seeing the light in the box pulsing now.

"Ah, well, there won't be any more after us. The last Time Lord. The last TARDIS." The Doctor clapped his hands, saying the words flippantly, but Rose saw what it cost him to admit that, to say it out loud.

"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest. Feed, if you will." House said before Auntie and Uncle seemed to become themselves again.

"We're not actually going to stay here, are we?" Rory asked lowly, like House wasn't all around them.

"Well, it seems like a friendly planet, literally. Do you mind if we poke around a bit?" The Doctor asked.

"You can look all you want." Auntie offered. "Go! Look. House loves you." Auntie cupped Amy's face, making the redhead fairly uncomfortable. Rose stood up straighter as she noticed the mismatched hands. The blonde looked over at the Doctor, who clearly had taken notice also.

"Come on, then, gang. We're just going to, uh, see the sights." The Doctor said in a tone of voice that left no questions that they were definitely going anywhere but to see the sights. He led the way out, grabbing hold of Rose's hand on the way.

**A/N: **_Big thanks to my beta-reader Rosalea12 for fixing all my mistakes! And another thanks to everyone who reviewed, hope you enjoyed the newest chapter._


	6. Chapter 6

"So, as soon as the TARDIS is refueled we go, yeah?" Rory asked once they were far enough from Auntie and Uncle to be heard.

"No. There are Time Lords here. I heard them and they need me." The Doctor answered back, refusing to look at his companions.

"You told me about your people and you told me what you did." Amy said softly.

"Yes, yes, but if they're like the Corsair, they're good ones, and I can save them." The Doctor said, finally turning around to look at his companions. Rose could see the clear desperation on his face even though he was trying valiantly hard to hide it.

"And then tell them you destroyed all the others?"

"I can explain, uh… tell them why I had to." The Doctor turned his back on them again, walking a couple paces away.

"You want to be forgiven." Amy said confidently and they all watched the Doctor's shoulders fall.

"Well, don't we all?" The Doctor asked. All his false confidence, his bravado, that constant bundle of energy that made up the Doctor was gone. He was left quite raw in front of them.

"What do you need from me?" Amy asked, giving up without a fight.

"Uh- my screwdriver." The Doctor said, patting his pockets. "I left it in the TARDIS. It's in my jacket."

"You're wearing your jacket." Rory deadpanned.

"My other jacket." The Doctor quickly retorted back, moving back towards the couple.

"You have two of those?" Rory asked and Rose felt her lips twitch into a grin. Nothing seemed to shake up Rory Williams.

"Okay, I'll get it, but, Doctor, listen to me-" Amy said, interjecting between her husband and the Doctor. "Don't get emotional, because that's when you make mistakes."

"Yes, boss." The Doctor said cheerfully, saluting the redhead.

"I'll call you from the TARDIS." Amy tossed the Doctor her phone. "Rory, look after him."

"Rory, look after her." The Doctor commanded, slipping the phone into his breast pocket before grabbing hold of Rose's slack hand and walking away. Rory looked both ways in confusion before following after his wife. "Okay, out with it." The Doctor said, spinning around and letting go of her hand.

"Out with what, Doctor?" Rose asked, not quite meeting his eyes.

"I've seen you furious and sad and cheerful and even drunk once but this, never seen this from you. If I didn't know better I'd say its defeat, but not Rose Tyler, you'd never admit defeat. So what is it? Do you think I'm being rash or too emotional? Do you think I should just leave the Time Lords here to rot? Out with it." The Doctor said, working himself into a near frenzy.

"All it took to get here was losing a few rooms from the TARDIS." Rose stated and the Doctor nodded. "A few rooms that you didn't even use. I've never even seen the scullery, and you have several other pools, and that last one- a potatoes court?"

"Severely underestimated that one."

"Just a couple unused rooms to get here, to another universe." Rose said, her voice devoid of all emotions.

"Outside the universe, I keep saying that but nobody seems to hear me- oh, oh no." The Doctor looked over Rose with dawning realization. He stepped close, cupping her face and making her look at him properly. "This is not another dimension, not like Pete's world. This might be outside the universe but it's still a part of it. Like a loose thread on a quilt. Pete's world is a whole other quilt in a whole other room." Rose swallowed a couple times, trying to get the lump in her throat to go down.

"So you couldn't get back to me just by gettin' rid of a few rooms?" Rose asked softly. The Doctor let out a breath and gave a hard kiss to her forehead before pulling her close for a hug.

"I tried Rose, I really did. I don't know how long it was for you, linear speaking, but it was near a year of me trying, and failing to get back to you. I nearly pulled the TARDIS apart, twice, trying. The next step would have ripped a hole in the universe, think the old girl realized how desperate I was. She kicked me out on this planet that had been abandoned, use to be a resort but the sun was going out. Took her two weeks to trust me enough to let me in again, and I used that dying sun to say goodbye." The Doctor explained while still holding on tightly to Rose. Rose returned the hug in equal measures, the glowing box in her hand digging into his back but he never said anything.

"'m sorry Doctor." Rose mumbled against the cotton of his shirt. The Doctor pulled back enough to look down at her. "I keep makin' things about me and that's not how I wanted to do this, 'm sorry."

"Rose Tyler you have nothing to apologize for, you have been absolutely brilliant. Hurt and angry at me, thinking I had abandoned you in another world with an easy way of getting back to you, you still came to defend me from-" Rose laughed as the Doctor stuttered.

"Idris, her name is Idris." Rose provided and the Doctor snapped his fingers before grapping her free hand and spinning the blonde around.

"See! Completely brilliant." The Doctor pulled out Amy's phone when it started to ring. "Yeah, it's around somewhere." The Doctor said, pulling out his sonic from his breast pocket. Rose raised an eye brow as he flipped it around in his hand, listening to Amy on the other line. "Have a good look." He held up the sonic and clicked it on. The Doctor then hung up the phone and put it back into his pocket, staring at Rose.

"What did you just do?" Rose finally asked.

"Locked them into the TARDIS." The Doctor answered back, sounding a bit pleased with himself.

"Of course you did," Rose sighed and started walking forward, the Doctor close behind.

"Where are you?" The Doctor asked to someone other than Rose. "Huh? Where are you all?" The Time Lords, he was referring to them. As if they would pop out from around a corner and go 'oh yes, here we are'. As if it is ever that easy. "Where are you?" He closed his eyes, turning his head around slowly.

"Doctor…" Rose said softly, feeling the box in her hand throb slightly. Somehow she felt like something was going to go terribly wrong. But the Doctor wasn't listening to her, he opened his eyes and started to walk determinedly forward. He pushed aside a make shift curtain and stared at a cupboard in the wall.

"Well, they can't all be in here." The Doctor said, looking back at Rose as if to confirm this. He then turned around slowly again and pressed his hand against the cupboard door before opening it. Uncle and Auntie appeared about the same time. Rose took a step forward, nearly tripping over an old forgotten satchel on the ground, and got a good look at all the glowing boxes and felt a sudden sense of dread.

"Just admiring your Time Lord distress-signal collection." The Doctor said without turning around to acknowledge the two new comers. "Nice job, brilliant job. I really thought I had some friends here. But this is what the Ood translator picked up, cries for help from the long-dead." The Doctor finally turned around to face Auntie and Uncle. "How many Time Lords have you lured here, the way you lured me? And what happened to them all?"

"House- House is kind and He is wise." Auntie said desperately.

"House repairs you when you break!" The Doctor shouted, moving a threatening step closer to the couple. "Yes, I know! But how does he mend you?" The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver, pointing it first at Uncle. "You've got the eyes of a 20-year-old."

"Thank you." Uncle said.

"No, no, I mean it literally. Your eyes are 30 years younger than the rest of you." The Doctor snatched away Uncle's hat, revealing a blue pointed ear. "Your ears don't match, your right arm is 2 inches longer than your left. And how's your dancing?! Because you've got two left feet! Patchwork people. You've been repaired and patched up so often, I doubt there's anything left of what used to be you." The Doctor put away his screwdriver only to grab Auntie's arm. "I had an umbrella like you, once."

"Oh, no, it's been a great arm for me, this." Auntie said and Rose felt her heart beat quicken a little in fear as to what was to come.

"The Corsair." The Doctor said, grabbing her arm again, the snake tattoo on the inside of the arm's forearm.

"He was a strapping big bloke, wasn't he, Uncle?"

"Big fellow."

"Yeah. I got the arm, and Uncle got the spine and the kidneys."

"Kidneys."

"You gave me hope and then you took it away." The Doctor said in a dangerously low voice.

"Doctor," Rose finally spoke up, stepping forward.

"That's enough to make anyone dangerous." The Doctor continued, ignoring Rose. "God knows what it will do to me. Basically, run!" Auntie ran but Uncle only backed up slowly.

"Poor old Time Lord, too late. House is too clever." Uncle then scurried away as Amy's phone began to ring. The Doctor reached into his pocket, his back to Rose.

"Time Lord stuff. I needed you out of the way." The Doctor said into the phone, back ramrod straight, shoulders squared off. Like he was preparing for battle. "The boxes will make you angry. How could she know?" The Doctor asked but Rose knew he wasn't really speaking to Amy any longer. "Stay put. Stay exactly where you are." The Doctor then hung up and began running down the corridor. Rose hesitated a moment, looking back at the cabinet full of little boxes. The last remains of the Time Lords. Her foot was still caught up in the satchel as she tried to turn and follow after the Doctor.

"How did you know about the boxes?!" The Doctor was yelling down the corridor. Rose ran after him, stopping when she saw Idris in a cage. "You said they'd make me angry, how did you know?"

"Ah, it's my thief." Idris was sitting in the middle of the cage, eyes closed and looking very relaxed.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked angrily but Idris only laughed.

"It's about time." Idris said, opening her eyes.

"I don't understand. Who are you?"

"Do you really not know me, just because they put me in here? Our wolf knows, she's always known. Clever little wolf."

"They said you were dangerous."

"Not the cage, stupid." Idris stood up and touched her temples. "In here. They put me in here. I'm the…" She was gripping the bars now and looking frustrated. "Oh! What do you call me?" She looked over at Rose for help. "We travel. I go-" And then the TARDIS noise emerged from the strange woman's mouth.

"The TARDIS?" The Doctor asked in disbelief as Rose thought back to what he had originally said-something about the MATRIX, the soul of the ship being gone. She adjusted the heavy satchel so it wouldn't dig into her shoulder as she thought it over.

"Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Yes, that's it. Names are funny. It's me." She stood up, still gripping the bars on her cage. "I'm the TARDIS."

"No, you're not. You're a bitey mad lady."

"Doctor," Rose said admonishingly but there was laughter lacing her voice.

"The TARDIS is up-and-downy stuff in a big blue box!" The Doctor said, spinning around and looking at Rose as if she needed to be told that.

"Yes, that's me. A Type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece when you were young. And the first time you touched my console, you said-"

"I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known." The Doctor said, staring right into Rose's eyes with a dawning realization. A conclusion that Rose had already come to.

"And then you stole me. And I stole you."

"I borrowed you."

"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken. Our wolf was borrowed by another universe, a universe that needed her to help it, but what makes you think I would ever give you back?" The Doctor turned slowly to look at Idris, or the TARDIS inhabiting the body of a woman named Idris.

"You're the TARDIS."

"Yes."

"My TARDIS?"

"My Doctor, he is a slow one isn't he?" Idris asked, looking over at Rose who grinned.

"Sometimes, a bit. Usually quicker on the uptake then this though. Then again it's not every day that one's ship comes alive. Or is it? It's a first for me." Rose said, near giddy with excitement.

"Oh! We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock." Idris said, stepping away from the door. The Doctor took out his screwdriver wordlessly and pointed it at the lock. The door creaked loudly as it swung open, letting Idris out to come stand in front of the Doctor. Both of them looked each other over quite thoroughly. "Are all people like this?"

"Like what?" The Doctor asked, sounding concerned, as if he was truly worried that his ship thought badly of this new body.

"So much bigger on the inside." Idris said, leaning around the Doctor to look at Rose. "I'm-" She turned back to the Doctor. "Oh, what is that word?! It's so big! So complicated. It's so sad."

"But why, why pull the living soul from a TARDIS and pop it in a tiny human head?" The Doctor asked, ignoring Rose's offended 'Oi!' "What does it want you for?"

"Oh, it doesn't want me." Idris said, sniffing the Doctor.

"How do you know?"

"House eats TARDISes." The Doctor pulled up his jacket and sniffed it himself.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Something I heard you say."

"When?"

"In the future."

"Brilliant, this is. Can you two pause so I can get some popcorn?" Rose asked, grinning from ear to ear as she held the now brightly glowing box in her hand.

"House eats TARDISes?" The Doctor asked, shooting Rose a look.

"Oh, there you go." Idris put her thumb over the Doctor's mouth. "What are fish fingers?" She asked Rose.

"When do I say that?"

"Any second."

"Of course! House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it. And not raw, lovely, uncooked processed food, mmm fish fingers." The Doctor said.

"Do fish have fingers?" Idris asked, making Rose laugh.

"But you can't eat a TARDIS! It would destroy you. Unless- unless-"

"Unless you got rid of the soul of the TARDIS?" Rose guessed, drawing both their attention to her.

"Yes, unless you deleted the TARDIS matrix first." Idris agreed and the Doctor laughed in disbelief.

"So it deleted you."

"But House can't just delete the TARDIS consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out the MATRIX, sticks it into a living receptacle, and then it feeds off the remaining artron energy." Idris gasped. "You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now." The Doctor started to frantically go through is pockets.

"I sent Amy and Rory in there. They'll be eaten. Amy!" The Doctor fumbled with the phone for a moment. "Amy! Rory! Get the hell out of there!" And off he went, running down the corridor. "Yeah, it's House! He's after the TARDIS! Just get out, both of you!" Rose heard the Doctor yelling down the hall. She went to follow him, but Idris stopped her.

"Psychic message." Idris said. "You were wondering how you could feel emotions that weren't your own? A box that seemed to react to the environment around it but it's just a message? But Time Lords don't do simple, it's a psychic message."

"Like the psychic paper, you have to be careful what you're thinkin' of or more will be put on the paper than what you bargained for." Rose said, staring down at the box with a mix of awe and horror. "Part of him is in this then?"

"Small part, insignificant really. Nothing at all like the real one, but he's dead and that's all that will ever be left of him. He likes you. You should go now." Idris pointed down the hall. Rose hesitated a minute before running after the Doctor.

Rose came out to see the Doctor banging on the TARDIS door as something loudly chimed all around them. But the soul of the TARDIS was standing in a room on this strange planet, and there was no one to open the door for him. The engines started up, the familiar whooshing sound and the TARDIS disappeared from sight.

"Amy?" The Doctor said into the phone. "Amy, can you hear me?" He hung up and looked back to the space where the TARDIS had disappeared. "Okay, right. I don't- I really don't know what to do. That's a new feeling." The Doctor slapped himself to keep from chuckling. Then he turned around and ran back, grabbing Rose's hand on the way and nearly pulling her right off her feet. The satchel bounced painfully off Rose's hip but she ignored that. They dashed back to the room where they left Idris, where Auntie and Uncle now occupied a space. "It's gone!"

"Eaten?" Idris asked.

"No, it left. Not eaten, hijacked, but why?" The Doctor asked.

"It's time for us both to go, Uncky, together." Auntie's said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Go? What do you mean go? Where are you going?" The Doctor asked as Auntie bundled up Uncle.

"Well, we're dying, my love." Auntie answered easily. "It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

"I'm against it, but-" Uncle shrugged and sat down next to Auntie.

"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets? Because you told House that it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?" Auntie asked.

"So now, he's off to your universe, to find more TARDISes." Uncle explained.

"It won't." The Doctor said, arms crossed. Rose stood beside him, brow furrowed and the Doctor uncrossed his arms to take a hold of her hand.

"Oh, it'll think of something." Auntie said right before falling over. The Doctor and Rose rushed to her.

"Actually, I feel fine." Uncle said, standing up before falling over also.

"Not dead! You can't just die!" The Doctor yelled, standing over Uncle's prone body. Rose felt around for a pulse on Auntie and found none.

"We need to go to where I landed Doctor, quickly." Idris said.

"Why?!" The Doctor asked in exasperation, his hands falling uselessly to his sides as Rose knelt next to Uncle.

"Because we are there in three minutes. We need to go-" Idris paused. "Now!" She rushed off but didn't get far before she was bent over in pain.

"What's wrong?" The Doctor asked, keeping his distance but Rose got up and went over to Idris, who was holding her side.

"Roughly how long do these bodies last? Oh why am I asking you, you're no more human than I am!" Idris then looked pointedly at Rose. The Doctor pulled out his sonic and pointed it at the woman with the consciousness of a space ship in her head. When Rose had taken the time vortex within herself, back when she was 19, she had twelve minutes and twenty two seconds before her body started to burn from the inside out.

"You're dying." The Doctor said in a conclusion they had all reached.

"Yes, of course I'm dying." Idris said, grabbing the sonic. "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time. No, stop it. Don't get emotional. Hmm, that's what the Orangey Girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus. Wolf, calm him." Rose stepped over to the Doctor, lacing her fingers with the Doctor's. She supposed being called Wolf was better than Orangey Girl. Idris then held out the sonic to him.

"On what?!" The Doctor asked, looking down at Rose before looking back at Idris. "How?! I'm a madman with a box, without a box!" He took the screwdriver and started to pace, only to realize he had a blonde girl still attached to his hand. He gave her a quick, hard kiss on the temple before releasing her hand to resume his pacing. "I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe in a stupid, old junkyard!" The Doctor was becoming frantic as he shoved his sonic back into his pocket.

Rose looked down at the box in her hand, at the snake eating itself on the side before looking up at the enormous ship with the same thing printed on the side. Idris was smiling at her.

"Oh." The Doctor said, sounding significantly less frantic now.

"Oh, what?" Idris asked.

"No, I'm not."

"Not what?"

"Because it's not a junkyard. Don't you see? It's not a junkyard." The Doctor said and Rose barely managed to contain her smile.

"What is it, then?" Rose asked, just to give him a little bit of a win even though she had already figured this out.

"It's a TARDIS-junk yard. Come on!" He began to run away but stopped and skidded in front of Idris. "Oh! Sorry. Do you have a name?"

"700 years. Finally, he asks." Idris scoffed.

"What do I call you?"

"I think you call me… Sexy." Rose couldn't contain her laughter now and the Doctor gave her a shocked look. If it was all well and good to both of them she would continue to think of her as Idris, or the TARDIS.

"Only when we're alone." The Doctor whispered, as if Rose still couldn't hear him. 900 year old space toddler, that's what he was. He then grabbed Idris's hand and took off. Rose pulled the blankets over Auntie and Uncle before walking away.

"Valley of half-eaten TARDISes." The Doctor was saying as he stood next to Idris on a mound of rubbish. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm thinking all of my sisters are dead, that they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses." Idris said softly.

"Ah, sorry, no, I wasn't thinking that." The Doctor said, losing his manic grin.

"No. You were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models. And you don't care that it's impossible."

"It's not impossible as long as we're alive. Rory and Amy need me, so, yeah, we're going to build a TARDIS. Plus," The Doctor added, jumping down and nearly falling flat on his face before Rose. Rose grinned and helped him regain his balance. "I try to believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast." The Doctor grinned back at Rose.

The Doctor ran about assembling a working TARDIS.

"Bond the tube directly into the tachyon diverter." Idris yelled out.

"Yes, I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, you know! I know what I'm doing!" The Doctor yelled back, sounding extremely frustrated.

"You're like a 9-year-old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom and you never read the instructions." Idris countered back. Rose sat near the Corsair's ship, watching the scene with amusement as she stripped wires.

"I always read the instructions!"

"There's a sign on my front door. You have been walking past it for 700 years. What does it say?" Idris asked.

"That's not instructions!"

"An instruction at the bottom. What does it say?"

"Pull to open." The Doctor finally admitted.

"Yes, and what do you do?"

"I push!"

"Every single time. 700 years. Police-Box doors open out the way."

"You know, I think I have earned the right to open my front doors any way I want." The Doctor gave up on his fruitless pursuit of trying to drag a hunk of metal across the ground and strode over to Idris.

"Your front doors? Have you any idea how childish that sounds?"

"Oh, you are not my mother."

"And you are not my child."

"You know, since we're talking, with mouths not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just want to say, you know, you have never been very reliable." The Doctor stated, hands on hips.

"Doctor." Rose admonished from her spot, though she was quite enjoying the show.

"And you have?" Idris asked back.

"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go." The Doctor said, turning away from Idris.

"No, but I always took you where you needed to go." Idris said, giving a pointed look over to Rose.

"You did. Look at us, talking!" The Doctor rushed back to Idris in a change of temperament. "Wouldn't it be amazing, if we could always talk, even when you're stuck inside the box?"

"You know I'm not constructed that way. I exist across all space and time and you talk and run around and bring home strays." Idris then collapsed. Rose stood up but the Doctor had caught her.

"You're okay." The Doctor said softly, nearly inaudibly.

"One of the kidneys has already failed. It doesn't matter we need to finish assembling the console."

"Using a console without a proper shell, it's not going to be safe." The Doctor glanced quickly over at Rose. Less safe for the human amongst them.

"This body has about 18 minutes left to live. The universe we're in will reach absolute zero in three hours. Safe is relative."

"Then we need to get a move on, eh, old girl?" The Doctor went back to his pulling and Rose sat back down.

Several minutes later found Rose surrounded by stripped wires and watching the pair of people before her with interest. They were both going about their own thing. The Doctor was mumbling as he fitted pieces into the make-shift TARDIS console, while Idris tossed unusable items over her shoulder as she went through a pile of junk.

"Do you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago?" Idris asked, holding up a coat hanger.

"I chose you. You were unlocked." The Doctor yelled over from his place several meters away.

"Of course I was." Idris turned back, taking several steps towards the Doctor. "I wanted to see the Universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough." The Doctor bounded over to his TARDIS incarnated.

"Right, perfect. Look at that. What could possibly go wrong?" They all watched as something snapped off the console and flew off into a junk pile. Rose stifled her laughter but she must have let some noise out because the Doctor shot her a dark look. "That's fine. That always happens. No, hang on, wait." The Doctor grabbed the wires from around Rose and rushed back to the make-shift console.

Idris placed her coat hanger on the console before the Doctor handed her the wires. Rose watched as they both placed the wires into their respective slots. The Doctor kept glancing at the blonde girl before quickly averting his eyes away but his gaze always pulled back to her. Rose gave a half grin before pushing herself to her feet and making her way over to the pair.

"Off you go then, don't forget to give me a lift before this whole pocket-universe folds up on itself." Rose tried to keep her grin in place but it slid off, feeling fake and dishonest. The Doctor peered at her from his spot in the make-shift TARDIS console, his fingers hovering over buttons. "I can't come with you, not enough room, plus there's a good chance that a human body won't survive that."

"She's right," Idris said, looking at her own face in a small mirror on the console. She pressed fingers into her cheek and pulled at her lip. "Our poor wolf won't survive the trip, but she also won't survive staying here. This universe will collapse upon itself when we leave."

"It will be like punching a hole in a balloon, that's how we leave. In a proper TARDIS we wouldn't make a dent but with this…" The Doctor trailed off. His eyes looked down at the console, then at Rose, but they slid off of her.

Rose bottled up her inner turmoil. It came down to this. He would have to leave her, there was no other choice. She wouldn't survive the trip with them, she didn't know the reason why behind that, but Idris had said so, and she trusted that soul and heart of the TARDIS. The Doctor needed to go, needed to save his companions. But more importantly, he needed to stop House.

"Well then, guess this is goodbye." Rose tried to sound cheerful while she wondered if it would hurt. A universe collapsing on itself, what would that be like? Her thoughts lingered on her half-human Doctor. Did he realize he was about to be wiped out of existence or was he there one moment and gone the next, never knowing. Would it be the same for her?

"Goodbye? Oh don't be stupid. I am simply going to transfer myself to your body, I will protect it until we get back to our proper home." Idris said while taking a step towards her. The Doctor hopped in between them.

"Transfer yourself to her body? That's insane, the last time-" The Doctor stopped himself, biting back his words and glancing up and around, anywhere but at Rose. Rose did not remember the last time she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, but she did remember what happened when she woke up. She lost her blue-eyed Doctor. She didn't quite know the logistics of what happened, but she knew he had somehow saved her, given up his life in order to get the soul of the TARDIS out of her.

"You'd rather her stay here?" Idris asked.

"Of course not!" The Doctor snapped impatiently, as if it were the stupidest thing he ever heard. Rose felt herself smile for real this time. "Well, I did have this body for quite a while, I guess it's time for a change."

"Oh my dear, daft Doctor. You will not be regenerating, not now at least. Two minutes, if we get me back to my proper home in two minutes, then there will be no damage done to our wolf and you will not have to give up a regeneration to save her." Idris explained and the Doctor looked confused for a moment before hope made his face come alive. He laughed and hugged Idris before turning and doing the same to Rose. "Now wolf, close your eyes and take a deep breath-" Rose did as she was told and felt like she was falling.

_Rose felt like she was burning alive, from the inside out. She wanted to scream but realized she had no lungs to fill with air, no mouth to let any noise out. All her instincts shouted at her to fight but how could she fight with no body? She was nothing and she hurt so much._

_ Something hummed at her and she suddenly felt her body again. Burning still but the fire inside of her was manageable now. It still hurt but she felt her attention pulled elsewhere, to something far more important than her own pain. Her own knowledge that her insides were being shredded, her mind wiped out, everything that made her Rose Marion Tyler was being erased and destroyed, but that didn't seem to matter. It was background noise to what she could see because she had eyes now and they were looking down at a man. She was speaking but it wasn't her words coming out of her mouth. Something older was pouring through her, destroying her slowly._

_ "Rose, you've got to stop this! You've got to stop this right now!" That voice was so familiar, it pulled at something inside her. Tugged at the other inside her, too. But she couldn't place it. "You've got the entire vortex runnin' through your head. You're goin' to burn." She knew that voice, fought her way past the Other controlling her._

_ "I want you safe." The Other was still there, lurking inside her and speaking through her voice, but it was her words, her meaning, her emotion behind them. She stared down at big blue eyes in an old, daft, handsome face. "My Doctor…" Rose nearly wept, perhaps she did because she could feel wetness upon her cheeks. "Protected from the False God." Rose wanted to scream when the Other took control again._

_ Rose was pushed back into nothingness again. But why did nothing burn so much? She fought her way back. She howled, or something howled, and she struggled back to control her own body. Rose wanted to crumble in upon herself as she watched Jack's death, another howl echoed in her mind though she somehow knew that this was an action that had already happened. But she could stop it, the Other inside her knew how._

_ "I bring life." The Other whispered or maybe that was her, she wasn't sure how to tell the difference anymore. She watched Jack gasp as she pushed life back into his prone body._

_ "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!" That voice pulled her back to what was happening, to the present. Past, present, future, it made no difference to her anymore._

_ "But I can." The Other said to her Doctor, to their Doctor. "The sun and the moon, the day and the night." Rose struggled to separate herself from the Other inside her, the howling in her head not able to block out all she could see, all she could hear. Death and destruction, pain and hurt all around her, inside of her. She couldn't push it away, couldn't block it out. She felt everything. "But why did they hurt?" Rose found herself saying, in control again, at least for a moment._

_ "The power's goin' to kill you, and it's my fault!" The Doctor looked away, his own pain crushing him. Crushing Rose, because she could feel it now. Could feel the deafening silence of a lost race, of his race. Could see and feel how one tiny human hand in his had kept his pain at bay, but how it was crushing him now._

_ "I can see everything." Rose tried to explain, tried to get the words out but they failed her. Her head, her body, her very soul hurt. "All that is, all that was, all that ever could be." She needed him to know he wasn't alone, that he was never alone, not with her, but she was in so much pain._

_ She saw him, the future Doctor, with his floppy hair and ridiculous assortment of bow-ties and she saw the pain he carried around with him. He had been born out of regret and bitterness and sadness, he had died alone and been born alone and he felt oh so alone. She saw her younger self, only slightly younger though she felt so old now- timeless and ageless and eternity all at once. 26 year old Rose Tyler, stuck in another dimension, struggling with the loss of her human Doctor. She wasn't unhappy but she knew what it felt like to be completely content, satisfied to her very bones and that Rose- the one who ate dinner alone in a sad, empty little flat, she was not content._

_ The Other grabbed an envelope from the void and pushed it into the other dimension. Rose knew what was happening, watched as the Other pulled her younger self through the void and dropped her into the middle of a desert. Bad Wolf had brought Rose Tyler to the Doctor once again._

_ "That's what I see, all the time." He was in front of her and she had to look up now. "And doesn't it drive you mad?"_

_ "My head." Rose sobbed. _

_ "Come here." The Doctor answered, arms outspread, his very soul bare to her. She could see every body of his, every heartache and hurt inside of him. But she could also see the joy, the wonder and the mad energy that made up the Doctor._

_ "It's killing me." Rose admitted, her heart breaking as she looked at her Doctor. Her hands were in his but there was so much space between them._

_ "I think you need a doctor." Rose wanted to laugh at his stupid joke, the kind of joke they had shared when she had just been a kid fresh off the Council estate but she was in too much pain. The Other let her have a little more control, so she could move though her body felt over used and jerky. Rose stared up at him, knowing what was to come but she tried to stay with her body, in the present as he lent down and pressed his lips to hers. She pressed against him when she realized he was elevating the pain. Taking away her ability to see all of time and space. But the Other remained behind._

_ Blackness consumed her again._

_ Rose came back to awareness suddenly but she knew this time she really had no body. She was nothing but consciousness in the ether. It didn't scare or alarm her like she thought it would. She felt somewhat comforted, knowing that someone was trying to show her something. The Other was present with her, a part of her now._

_ The Bad Wolf, she thought with sardonic amusement and felt the Other preen inside of her. She and the Other were one now, for better or worse._

_ Rose saw Time Lord Victorious. She saw the Master and everything involving him. She saw the death of her second Doctor, alone and bitter and unwilling to go. Saw how that affected this new Doctor, the one who hid coldness behind a childlike wonder. She saw bits and pieces, everything she needed to know to put together a full picture of this new Doctor._

_ Rose thought of House and the Other growled. Or maybe she did. There wasn't really a difference anymore._

_ She slipped into blackness once more._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: As usual, big thanks to my beta-reader Rosalea12! And a big thanks for everyone who reads this story and reviews or favorites! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Hello, it's a double top." Rory was, as usual, arguing with Amy as Rose walked into the console room. Music was blaring, something with a heavy beat and a male singer with a high pitched voice. Rose looked over the railing to where Rory and Amy were playing a game of darts.

"Wrong side of the wire, Mister." Amy said in a slightly mocking voice as she took a couple steps back then turned to the dartboard.

"You're on the oche, Red." Rory grumbled but Amy just laughed.

"No, I'm not. Stop trying to put me off." Amy retorted. Rose looked over to the Doctor, who was staring at what looked like an x-ray on the console monitor. He adjusted something on the monitor as Rose stepped forward but she must have made some noise that he could hear over the loud, pounding music because he turned off the monitor and the music quickly.

"Who wants fish and chips?" The Doctor asked, turning to glance at Rose with a grin that did nothing to hide his worry. Rory, who was standing at the dartboard, held up his hand. "I'll drop you both off. Take your time. Don't rush."

"Uh, and you?" Rory asked, sharing a mildly concerned look with his wife.

"I have things to do, things involving-" He looked at Rose but she gave him a look that clearly stated 'leave me out of your barmy mess'. "Other things." The Doctor finished lamely. He was rushing about the console, clearly trying to avoid any sort of prolonged contact. Amy, clever girl she was, followed him.

"Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things." Amy said, Rory close behind her as she stepped up the stairs. The Doctor began to make a big racket.

"Nope." The Doctor said quickly.

"Whatever you're up to, I, personally, would like to be a part of it." Amy said, pointing at the Doctor with one of the darts still in her hand. Rose leaned against the railing and nodded her agreement. "What?" The Doctor opened his mouth but then an alarm started blaring. It was the only warning they got before the TARDIS started to shake violently. Rose, barely, managed to hold onto the railing with the first violent pull.

"Solar tsunami, came directly from your sun! A tidal wave or radiation- big, big, big!" The Doctor explained over the noise. Rose was tossed down onto her knees then back into the railing, her arm twisted painfully and she had to let go or risk breaking it. Another violent jerk sent her right under the railing and crashing into the floor.

Rose could hear yelling from above as her stomach lurched oddly. Whether from being tossed to the ground, all the violent jerking going about, or something going wrong in the TARDIS she wasn't sure. She barely managed to grasp onto something before another jerk happened.

As suddenly as the tossing had begun it stopped.

"Rose? Rose!" The Doctor shouted, slamming against the railing to see Rose on the floor beneath, sprawled out in an ungainly heap. He jumped over the railing, landing surprisingly gracefully before kneeling next to her and taking her head between his slightly cool hands.

"At least 'm conscious." Rose said, only half joking. One bad landing had left her with a nasty knot on the back of her head. She felt a bit bruised but otherwise alright. Nothing broken at least.

"There's that," The Doctor mumbled but he was too busy making sure for himself that nothing was broken. He had been especially attentive since the whole taking the soul and heart of the TARDIS inside of herself, again, thing had occurred. Rose couldn't say she minded much, though it made it a bit more difficult to remind herself that they were just friends. Especially when he had his hands on her and his face was so close.

"Little brown flecks." Rose found herself saying, looking into the Doctors ancient eyes. Those eyes suddenly snapped to hers and she felt her face grow hot. A concussion was no excuse for letting her tongue go all loose!

"What was that?" The Doctor asked, a smirk playing on the corner of his lips that clearly stated he knew exactly what that was.

"Did you say it was a textbook landin'? How full of it are you?" Rose covered up, quite smartly if she said so herself.

"Oi!" The Doctor said, only half offended as he helped Rose up to her feet. His eyes scanned her, resting on her skirt for a moment longer than necessary. Rose did a little twirl, letting the skirt billow out and the two grinned at each other.

"I'm guessing you're okay then," Amy said dryly, reminding them both that they were not alone. The Doctor laughed, took Rose's hand and rushed them out of the TARDIS.

"Behold!" The Doctor yelled out, swinging the door open with a flourish. "A cockerel. Love a cockerel. And, underneath, a monastery, 13th-century."

"Oh, we've gone all medieval." Amy said, staring up at the large stone castle as she pulled on her leather jacket.

"I'm not sure about that." Rory said doubtfully, looking around. The Doctor crouched low to the ground, nearly pulling Rose with him as he had yet to let go of her hand.

"Really? Medieval expert, are you?" Amy asked.

"No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield." Rory answered and they all looked at the castle.

"These fissures are new." The Doctor said, staring at a tube imbedded in the ground. "The solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This was caused by a magnetic quake that occurred just before the wave hit." The Doctor let go of Rose's hand to pull out a snow globe of all things.

"Well, the monastery's standing." Amy said. Rose crouched down on the grass, putting her hand above it to feel the blades nearly vibrating beneath her palm.

"This is not good." Rose said, knowing a bit about gamma particles from her research when she was doing a bit of dimensional hopping. Funny the things you pick up when working for a secret government agency.

"Yeah, for now." The Doctor mumbled.

"Why haven't they evacuated?" Rose asked, more to herself than anyone else, as she stood up and took another look around.

"Doctor look." Rory said.

"Ah, it's a supply pipe." The Doctor then pulled out his sonic and pointed it at the pipe. "Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive."

"I could have told you that, says so on the pipe." Rose gave him her tongue in tooth grin as the Doctor stood up and made a face at her.

"They're pumping something nasty off this island, to the mainland." The Doctor said, mostly to himself as he tucked his sonic away.

"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield." Rory admitted.

"Mine too." Rose said with a grin.

"Oh of course she is." The Doctor lost a bit of the worry from his eyes.

"Oi, watch it." Rose faked offense, just to watch a bit more of that worry slide away from the Doctor.

"Right, let's go satisfy our rabid curiosity!" The Doctor said, clapping his hands together and hopping over the hole in the ground. A bit risky, that, Rose thought. Considering the many times he had tripped over his own feet, he really shouldn't be jumping over holes with pipes with unknown corrosive things floating in them. But he snatched her hand as he ran by and headed towards the stairs. Amy and Rory were close behind.

"So, where are these Dusty Springfield-loving monks, then?" Amy asked as they strode through a gate. The Doctor, using his free hand, pulled out his sonic and waved it about.

"I think we're here. This is it." The Doctor mumbled.

"Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before." Rory asked as the Doctor checked his sonic.

"We came here by accident." Amy reminded.

"Accident?" The Doctor frowned, turning around to face his companions. "Yes, I know. Accident." Rose was about to start in on the Doctor keeping things from them, again, but Rory was suddenly waving his hand and cursing.

"Acid. They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger." The Doctor explained as Amy looked at Rory's hand.

"And you didn't think to tell us? Oh hey, by the way, don't touch the walls?" Rose admonished, pulling her hand from the Doctors before grabbing the sonic out of his hand and flipping through the settings. The Doctor stepped close, peering over her shoulder. Rose found it a bit difficult to concentrate on finding the right setting with his breath in her ear.

"It's setting 43B," The Doctor made a move for the sonic but Rose ducked out of his reach and flipped the sonic to the right setting before aiming it at Rory's finger.

"Setting 43B, helps accelerate the healing process, nothin' for the pain, sorry. Though could 'ave avoided the whole thing if someone 'adn't been keepin' secrets." Rose tossed the sonic back to the Doctor.

"Have you ever noticed you get a bit London-er when angry?" The Doctor pointed out before pointing his sonic in the air. Alarms started to blare and Rose anchored her fists on her hips, narrowing her eyes.

"Fancy that, saved by the bell." Rose said.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." The alarm yelled out as the Doctor walked away.

"There are people coming. Well, almost." The Doctor told his companions.

"Almost coming?" Amy asked.

"Almost people." The Doctor answered back, looking at his sonic before dashing off. Amy followed behind him.

"I think we should probably- probably go." Rory said, pointing back to the TARDIS.

"Come on!" Amy called out.

"I'm telling you, when something runs towards you, it's never for a nice reason." Rory explained but Amy just ran back and grabbed hold of his jacket, yanking him forward. Rose looked around the courtyard before following after them.

They came upon a room. A room with a strange mixture of old and new in it. Old walls, old room but new technology. New people laying upright on metal beds.

"What are all these harnesses for?" Amy asked, looking around.

"Uh, the almost people?" Rory answered hesitantly.

"What are they, prisoners?" Amy questioned, following after the Doctor still. "Or are they mediating, or what?"

"Well, at the moment, they fall into the 'or what' category." The Doctor answered back in his usual extremely unhelpful way.

"Halt and remain calm." The alarm commanded.

"Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front? Still angry?" Rose gave him a look. "I take that as a yes."

"Don't move!" A man commanded, running into the room with something that looked like a long cattle prod. Several other people came in behind him.

"Stay back Jen. We don't know who they are." Another man, younger and brunette, said, holding the prod like a weapon. The Doctor took a fist full of Rose's sweater, pulling her back since she had been standing between the Doctor and the new comers.

"So let's ask them." The only girl in the group asked. Rose guessed she was Jen. "Who the hell are you?"

"Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy and Rory and Rose, and it's all very nice, isn't it?" The Doctor said, pulling Rose away until she was behind him. Rose let him do this, feeling a bit of her irritation slip away at the protective move. She really didn't need him protecting her, they might be almost people but they were still people and Rose was a trained member of a secret government agency that tracked down alien threats. If they tried to use those prods she would probably be their best bet of getting out of there unarmed.

"Hold up. You're all- what are you all, like, identical twins?" Amy asked, glancing between the people in the upright beds and the ones blocking their exit.

"This is an Alpha-Grade Industrial Facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetsan, you are in big trouble." Another women, older than the first, and a younger man walked over.

"Actually, you're in big trouble." The Doctor searched through is pocket but Rose pulled out the psychic paper from her own pocket, coughing and handing it off to the Doctor, who didn't let the slight set back slow him down.

"Meteorological department? Since when?" The woman in the strange suit asked, grabbing the paper from the Doctor.

"Since you were hit by a solar wave." The Doctor said, using his calm voice which meant things were about to get a whole lot worse.

"Which we survived." The woman snapped back.

"Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way." The Doctor said, rubbing his hands together.

"Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs." The woman ordered and the younger man next to her held up some sort of device.

"Backs against the wall. Now." Dicken commanded. The Doctor held up his hands and backed away.

"You're not a monastery. You're a factory. 22nd-century, army-owned factory." The Doctor explained as they all backed up against the wall.

"You're army?" Amy asked.

"No, love, we're contractors, and you're trespassers." The woman said. Good they weren't army, meant they probably didn't have any training. Bad they were contractors, meant they were only in it for the money. Rose glanced at the youngest looking one who was scanning her. She gave him a grin, meant to be disarming. His cheeks turned red as he backed away quickly.

"It's okay, boss." Dickens said.

"All right, Weatherman, your ID checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it- hand out sunblock?" The woman asked as the Doctor walked forward. She handed back over the psychic paper.

"I need to see your critical systems." The Doctor said, laughing.

"Which one?"

"You know which one."

They were led down a hall, the Doctor telling them to stay away from the walls. They gathered into a dimly lit room with a big vat in the middle. Something bubbled inside of it. The vat was hooked up to some other, smaller machine. Shaped vaguely like a human cut-out.

The Doctor took great care in looking at the bubbling vat.

"And there you are." The Doctor mumbled to himself.

"Meet the government's worst kept secret-" Rose felt sudden blaring familiarity with it.

"The Flesh." Rose cut off the woman, stepping forward and looking into the vat with disdain. The Doctor looked up, eye brows raised but Rose didn't offer an explanation. She had come upon this in her dimensional hopping, it had been slightly different but Rose understood what it was. What it was used for. It hadn't ended well in the time she had landed in, she doubted it'd be different here.

"Correct. Fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself. At the cellular level." The woman said, nodding to Rose. She sounded excited but Rose couldn't agree.

"Right. Brilliant. Lost." Amy said, glancing around the room.

"Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything, replicate a living organism, down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin- even clothes. And everything's identical- eyes, voice." The woman explained, stepping closer to Amy and Rory.

"Mind, soul." The Doctor said softly.

"Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life, but it still needs to be controlled by us from those harnesses you saw."

"Funny, went to a hospital once where they grew people, you kind of sound like the nuns I met there." Rose said. The Doctor tapped his nose and pointed a finger at Rose.

"Wait, whoa, hold it." Rory looked around. "So you're flesh now?"

"I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer, here. Don't be scared. This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck." Rose had to look away. She hadn't been fully conscious during her trip to that hospital on New Earth, hadn't been able to feel fully disgusted by what the nuns had done because she really hadn't been herself. But she was herself now, and she got why her old Doctor had referred to them as stupid apes.

"You said it could grow. Only living things grow." The Doctor said, lacing his fingers in front of his face.

"Moss grows. It's no more than that." The woman said dismissively. "This acid is so dangerous, we were losing a worker every week. So now, we mine the acid using these doppelgangers, or gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid-"

"Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?" One of the men said, sounding gruff and angry.

"Well, the nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged, except we wake up and get a new ganger." Jen explained.

"It's weird." The oldest of the males said. Rory looked slightly uncomfortable with this whole situation. Rose watched the Doctor search through his pockets out of the corner of her eye. "But you get used to it." The Doctor pulled out his sonic.

"Jennifer, I want you in your ganger. Get back to the harness." The woman in charge commanded. Jen walked away hesitantly.

"Hang on. What's he up to?"

"What are you up to, pal?" The angry man asked as the Doctor pointed his sonic in the Flesh.

"Stop it. Ah!" The Doctor whipped away his arm, looking disgruntled for a moment. "Strange. It was like, for a moment there, it was scanning me."

"Doctor." The woman in charge said. The Doctor, of course, did not listen as he put his hand to the Flesh. "Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone!" The Doctor's face contorted in pain.

"I understand." The Doctor said.

"Doctor, are you alright?" Amy asked, stepping closer to the Doctor. Rose took a step back, nearly knocking into Rory.

"You act like you've seen this before." Rory said in a low voice as the Doctor and Amy conversed, drawing everyone's attention away.

"Yeah, wasn't pretty. There was a war, a lot of people were dyin' so they started to use the Flesh. You die out in the battlefield, wake up safely hundreds of kilometers away." Rose answered, also using a low tone. No need to alert the others that they were time travels, 22nd century didn't have that sort of technology anyways. Probably would just think they were barmy. "Except it all went a bit pear shaped. A soldier dies over and over again, starts gettin' to them. They couldn't tell what was real and what was Flesh anymore. Got bloodier after that." Rory looked a bit paler, a little horrified.

"Is that going to happen here? Are they suddenly going to go mad?" Rory asked, glancing around at the people surrounding them.

"Don't think so, this is something different. Something new." Rose didn't really think that the something different or new was necessarily a good thing. Especially with the way the Doctor was acting.

"Okay good, we're on an island that's bleeding acid with an earthquake about to come and there's something going on with the weird Flesh. Brilliant." Rory summarized.

"Nicely put." Rose said with a grin. Nothing really fazed Rory Williams-Pond.

"I'm being brilliant over here and you're not paying attention." The Doctor said, popping up in front of Rose.

"Sorry, go on. You've got our full attention." Rose's tongue caught between her teeth and the Doctor touched her nose.

"I was saying it's alive, so alive." The Doctor spun back around, facing the room. "You're piling your lives, your personalities, directly into it." He pulled out his snow globe again as thunder crashed around them.

"Solar storm." Rose glanced around, wondering if there was a safe room that could guard against acid. Probably best just to get back to the TARDIS.

"The first waves come in pairs- preshock and full shock. It's close." The Doctor said worriedly.

"Buzz, have we got anything from the mainland yet?" The woman asked.

"No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation." Buzz answered.

"Okay, then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop." The Doctor stopped his frantic pacing to turn back to them. "Now, why don't you stand back and let us impress you." Rose turned as the tube began to fill. A face was the first to form out of the goop. Rose felt her throat tighten, this feeling all too familiar. She stepped next to the Doctor and he laced his fingers with hers automatically, giving her hand a soft squeeze but his eyes remained on the tub. The goo slowly disappeared until a fully formed Jennifer remained behind.

"Well, I can see why you keep it in a church. The miracle of life." The Doctor retorted.

"No need to get poncey. It's just gunge." Buzz grumbled.

"Guys, we need to get to work." Jen said, standing up in the tub.

"Okay, everybody, let's crack on." The older man said, helping Jen out of the tub.

"Did I mention the solar storm?" The Doctor asked as the whole building shook.

"Three times now." Rose answered and the Doctor gave her a nod.

"You need to get out of here."

"Well, where do you want us to go?" Buzz asked.

"We're on a tiny island." The older man, who's name Rose had yet to get, said.

"Well, I can get you all off it." The Doctor said, sounding quite proud of himself.

"Don't be ridiculous we've got a job to do." The woman in charge said.

"It's coming." Alarms started to go off.

"That's the alarm." Jen said, sounding a bit frantic.

"How do you get power?" The Doctor asked.

"We're solar, and we use a solar router. The weather vane."

"Boss, maybe if the storm comes back, we should get underground. The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not withstand another hit." The older man finally spoke up, for once using a little common sense.

"We have 200 tons of acid to pump out. We fall behind, we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?" The woman in charge asked, sounding quite pompous. The Doctor dropped Rose's hand to grab hold of the woman's arm and dragged her a couple steps away.

"Please. You are making a massive mistake here. You're right at the crossroads of it. Don't turn the wrong way. If you don't- if you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger, understand?" The Doctor asked but Rose knew from the stubborn look on the woman's face it was the wrong way to go about talking some sense into her. Rose felt begrudging respect for the woman. Couldn't be easy being a woman in charge in such a dangerous place, and all the sudden these strangers come in and try to tell her what to do? Rose wouldn't have listened either.

"My factory, my rules." The woman said, pulling her arm away and walking away from them.

"I need to check the progress of the storm. Monitoring station." The Doctor pointed at Jen, who looked hesitant. "Monitoring station!" The Doctor demanded and Rose ground her teeth together. Brandishing orders about she was use to him doing that but she had always been there to tell him when he was being rude about it. And he was definitely being rude about it.

"Three lefts, a right, and a left. Third door on your left." Jen said quickly. The Doctor gave her a thumbs up.

"Thank you." He walked away, closely followed by his companions. "The wave's disturbing the Earth's magnetic field." The Doctor explained as they dashed down the hallways turning three lefts, a right, and then a left and going down to the third door on their left. They spilled into the room full of computer monitors as a storm raged around them. "There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges!" The Doctor continued as he rushed about the room. Everyone tried to stay on their feet as the stone beneath them shook and threatened to give way.

"You see this weather vane, the cock-a-doodle-do?" The Doctor asked but didn't wait for a reply, answering his own question in a rapid fire way that gave away how truly worried he was. "It's a solar router, feeding the whole factory with solar power." Rose stepped over to another monitor, watching the multi-colored waves on it jump up and down in a way she was sure meant no good. "When that wave hits-"

"Kaboom." Rose said in time with the Doctor. He looked over at her and gave a stiff nod.

"I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose." The Doctor then turned back, grinning in a way that made him look about five years old. "I never thought I'd have to say that again." He leaned against the wall before pointing at Amy. "Amy, breathe." And then he was gone.

"Yeah! I mean, thanks, I'll-I'll try." Amy shouted after him, sounding as confused as Rory looked at the odd statement. Amy and Rory went after the Doctor but Rose stayed put.

Rose thought she may be able to re-direct some of the power elsewhere, at least to a part of the monastery that was less inhabited by people. She was really quite brilliant with computers, though no one ever thought she would be by looking at her. But she had been friends and dated Mickey Smith, who was a natural with anything electronic, even her first Doctor had admitted that he was good with the computer. She had picked up a few things from him. Then there had been the Doctor himself, always wanting to teach her new things. Languages, recipes, and yes new technologies amongst other things. Next came Torchwood and then the Doctor again. It all combined together to make her very adapt.

It still took Rose a couple moments to figure out how the computers worked. They dealt mostly with the weather but she found a way to subvert the power. She could even see where everyone was, little pinpoints on a map that laid out the blueprint for the monastery. Rose noted that the pinpoints did not differentiate between Ganger and human.

Then everything started to go to hell right quickly. The computers started sparking and steaming. The ground shook and the windows creaked in their frames. Rose shoved herself into a corner and covered her head right before the worst of it hit. As quickly as it started, it stopped and Rose found herself wrapped in darkness.

For a moment Rose Tyler thought she had blacked out again. But she never remembered anything from her blackouts. One moment she was awake, the next she was on the ground and had a feeling time had passed.

The lights, the lights had gone out. The power surge had made them lose power. Rose pushed herself to her feet, trying not to think of what would happen to a building that pumped acid when it lost power. They had to have emergency protocols right? Back up generators? Then again the woman in charge, Cleaves, had said they had lost a worker every week before the Gangers came along. She hadn't seemed too sad about that, so who knew if they cared at all that all the workers died here.

Rose was not about to die here though, thanks. She especially was not going to die from acid, that sounded a particularly horrible way to go and she had other plans. She needed a plan though, a real working plan because she wasn't about to go wandering about an acid factory. That seemed a quick way to get herself killed. Her brown eyes turned to the computers that she could barely make out in the dark. Just a slightly darker shadow but she leaned against them, her hands clutching the edges. This had a map of the monastery and a way to track down every living specimen but the power was out.

Rose had spent her time trying to keep her mind occupied so she didn't have to think about what she'd done. The TARDIS had sent her back to her 19-year-old self's body and she had pulled her 26-year-old self from the other world to this one to be with this Doctor. Rose Tyler knew humans were capable of many wondrous and amazing and sometimes horrible things but she didn't know of many who could do that. If she admitted that then she had to admit that she wasn't quite human anymore.

Something unfurled in the back of her mind. It felt like taking a great big stretch after sitting too long.

Perhaps Rose had a way. She stared down at her hands though she really couldn't make them out in the darkness. It didn't matter though, she knew they were there. Knew they were deceptively strong with long, nimble fingers. There was a scar across the first three knuckles on her right hand and the thumb on her left hand never could fully extend after she had broken it three times within one summer. She pressed those hands, so familiar yet strange and new at the same time, to the computer and let the Other in the back of her mind wake up a bit more.

In the dark it was so much easier to make out her glowing skin.

Rose pushed that away as she stared at the monitor, which was flicking on and off. She saw her solo dot, a short distance away from eight other dots gathered in a small room that Rose thought might be the room with the harnesses. But her attention was caught by other dots, roving down the halls. The computer screen flickered off and Rose was left sweating and panting in the dark.

Rose knew from the war she had been dumped in thanks to the dimensional cannon that the Gangers should have turned back into flesh when disconnected with the hosts mind. The power being out meant that the harnesses no longer would work so why were the Gangers still active? And why did it look like there were a pile of dots somewhere in the basement levels? Rose was certain before that they hadn't been there.

Rose looked at the door when Dusty Springfield started to play again. The sound was quite eerie when she was in the dark and alone.

"Well, enough standin' about." Rose said, just to hear something in the silence. She pushed the fact that she had just turned on a computer by glowing gold and that there was something other than herself living within the confines of her mind and just about everything else creepy that had happened in the last few minutes and set about looking for a torch.

She found one quite easily and with a bit of light she felt much better. Rose set off down the hall.

There was a hissing sound and Rose turned, shining her light down the hall and swallowing down her fear. Fear was part good and part bad. Fear made you recognize a bad situation for what it was but it could also lock you down, freeze you up. Rose had been fear locked before and now was not the time for it.

Something snapped and steam was suddenly billowing out of a pipe. Rose sucked in a breath and yanked her arm back, the torch dropping from her hand and smashing into the ground. Rose was grinding her teeth and bending over at the waist as she gripped her arm tightly, right below where the acid had hit. It hadn't been the liquid acid, just steam from it, Rose noted with a certain happy bitterness. Liquid might have meant she lost her arm, now it just hurt like hell.

There was another hissing sound and Rose gave a glance to her melting torch before turning and running down the hall right before another blast of steam hit right where she had been standing.

There was a room up ahead and Rose ran into it. The room where they had made the Gangers, where the flesh was stored. Unnerving but at least it was acid-free and well lit by the large windows that let the light in from outside.

Rose didn't want to look at her arm but she knew she had to, she had to assess the damage. If she could get to the TARDIS she would be fine. But that thought didn't stop the pain. Her musings were interrupted by the appearance of the workers. The Doctor stood in the doorway, yelling. Of course, he was always yelling.

"Let me see that," Jimmy said softly, being the first to spot her. Rose hesitantly held out her arm and watched his face instead of looking down at her arm. "Didn't go down to the bone but the muscles been a bit damaged. Needs to be cleaned out before infection sets in." His Northern accent was thick and calming as he held her arm.

"Everyone okay?" Rose asked but the look on Jimmy's face clearly stated that everyone was most certainly not okay.

"Amy, Amy, they are not after him, they're after us." The Doctor said, holding onto Amy who was struggling against him. Rose watched as the others pushed crates against the door. Jimmy walked over to help prop items against the door.

"Why? Why?" A voice said from the shadows of the room.

"Show yourself." The Doctor's voice, for once, failed him and came out quiet, near a whisper. "Show yourself!" He shouted, as if to make up for the previous one.

"Doctor!" Amy yelled out as the workers continued to barricade the door.

"This is insane." Jimmy said, leaning against the door now. He was laughing but it wasn't a happy sound. "We're fighting ourselves." Rose was getting a better picture of what exactly was going on but she wasn't clear on the how or why yet. The Doctors cool hands cupped her face.

"You alright?" The Doctor asked, voice low and filled with concern as his eyes continually glanced to the dark shadows of the room.

"Fine, do what you need to do." Rose urged.

"Yes, it's insane and it's about to get even more insaner." The Doctor said, referring back to what Jimmy had said before. Amy walked determinedly up to him. "Is that a word?" The Doctor asked Amy but once again didn't give her time to answer. "Show yourself! Right now!"

"Doctor, we are trapped in here and Rory is out there with them. Hello! We can't get to the TARDIS, and we can't even leave the island!" Amy yelled but the Doctor wasn't looking at her.

"Correct in every respect, Pond." The Doctors voice said but the Doctor wasn't speaking. "It's frightening, unexpected, frankly, a total, utter, splattering mess on the carpet. But I am certain, 100% certain, that we can work this out. Trust me, I'm the Doctor." And the Doctor walked out of the shadow but there was something wrong with his face. Pale with blue eyes and his features seemed flattened, slightly slimy.

He screamed, the Doctor, the one who resembled but didn't at all the Doctor.

"What's happening?" The Doctor, the normal looking one, asked, looking very concerned for himself. Rose thought this could get confusing quite fast but she had dealt with a similar situation before. Felt she was a bit more prepared for this than poor Amy.

"One day, we will get back." The other Doctor said, hands on his head, looking like he was in a fair amount of pain. "Yes. One day." He looked up and then flung his head back, screaming in pain again. "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow."

"The flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations- hold on." The Doctor, the fully Time Lord one said. The Ganger Doctor bent over, holding onto his back and gasping for breath. He suddenly jerked and held out his hand.

"Would you like a jelly baby?" He asked, his voice deeper. "Why? Why? Why?!" The Ganger Doctor yelled, screamed, and begged.

"Why? Why? What?" The Doctor asked. Rose stepped forward but the Time Lord Doctor pulled her behind him. She couldn't see the Doctor in pain, not this new one with his floppy hair and questionable morals or the even newer one withering before her.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor." The Ganger Doctor suddenly said, standing up tall. "No, let it go! We've moved on!" He screamed, stepping forward.

"Listen- hold on. Hold on, you can stabilize."

"I've reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow. And would you like a- Doctor. Doctor, I'm- I'm- gone."

"No listen, hold on. Hold on!"

"No!" The Ganger Doctor screamed, agony lacing his voice as he tossed the other Doctor away from him. Cleaves and Jimmy were holding back Amy and Rose felt like her stomach had hit the floor.

"Go see to the door." The Doctor ordered as something was repeatedly rammed against it from the outside. Amy looked about to protest but the Doctor just shouted his order again. The others went to the door and Amy hesitated but went to help. Rose stayed where she was, her arm throbbing and her heart clenching painfully within her chest.

"I think I liked it better when they were being noisy." Buzzer said from behind Rose after the ramming had stopped.

"Doctor! We need you. Get over here." Amy ordered.

"Hello." Ganger Doctor said, standing up tall again.

"Doctor!"

"Cybermats." The Doctor said.

"Do we have time for this?" Ganger Doctor asked, leaning to the left to see around his counterpart and giving a smile to Rose. Rose grinned back. He was still a little sweaty and pale but he seemed to have- what was the word the Time Lord Doctor had used? Stabilized, he seemed to have finally been able to stabilize himself.

"We make time." The Doctor said, staring at Amy but then he turned back to his doppelganger, who immediately stood up straight and pretended he hadn't been flirting with Rose. "I'd like more proof that you're me. Cybermats."

"Created by the cybermen. They kill by feeding off brainwaves." Ganger Doctor answered as Amy ran back to the door.

"Rory and Amy, they may not trust both of us." The Doctor said after they had switched shoes. Rose watched with a raised eye brow, wondering what that was about.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ganger Doctor asked.

"Inevitably."

"Ha, you see, I'm glad we're on the same-"

"Wavelength. See? Great minds."

"Exactly. So what's the plan?"

"We save them all, humans and gangers."

"Tall order. Sounds wonderful."

"Is that what you were thinking?"

"Yes. It's just so inspiring to hear me say it."

"I know."

"Oh you two are the worst." Rose finally spoke up, grinning despite the fact that her arm felt like she was holding hot coals to it. They both grinned fondly at her.

"Doctor, come on!" Amy shouted.

"So, what now, Doctor?"

"Well, time to get cracking, Doctor."

"Stop it right now or I'm smackin' both of you." Rose said, giving them both the look that Tyler women save especially for the men in their life. They both ducked their eyes and darted away.

"Hello, sorry, but we had to establish a few ground rules, formulate a protocol." The Doctors said in union and finishing each other's sentences in a very irritating way.

"Protocol, very posh." Ganger Doctor commented.

"Protocol between us, otherwise-"

"It gets horribly embarrassing-"

"Potentially confusing."

"Okay, well, I'm glad you solved the problem of confusing." Amy said, sounding completely annoyed.

"That's sarcasm."

"She's very good at sarcasm."

"Breath!" They both said in union.

"What?" Amy said, drawing back.

"We have to get you off this island. And the gangers, too." The Ganger Doctor said.

"Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting?" Cleaves asked. "They are trying to kill us!"

"I would, I would like a memo, I seem to have missed the part where your gangers came alive and now want us all dead. And also we're missing Rory." Rose spoke up, standing beside Ganger Doctor, who grinned down at her but then frowned as he noticed her holding her arm. He pulled the sonic out of his pocket, the sonic the other Doctor had given him after they switched shoes, and turned it to her arm.

"Hello." Ganger Doctor greeted as Rose let out a breath of relief when the pain receded. It was still hurt, she'd need to TARDIS's medbay to heal it completely but for now just taking a bit of the pain away helped. Made her stop grinding her teeth, more willing to deal with the situation at hand.

"Hello." Rose said, smiling and running the tips of her fingers across his cheek because she was just too curious not too. He was cooler than the Doctor, which was only to be expected. The Doctor had said something about not being stabilized yet, and the flesh tended to run cooler. But his skin felt like skin.

"They're scared!" The Doctor yelled, pulling Rose's attention to the current situation.

"Doctor, we're trapped in here." Amy reminded him.

"Right, see, I don't think so. The Flesh bowl is fed by cabling from above." The Doctor said, stepping forward and pointing upwards.

"But where are the earthing conduits, hmm?" Ganger Doctor asked.

"Well, this piping must go down into a tunnel." The Doctor answered, looking downward. "Or a shaft or something, yes? With us?" He pulled away some boards from a wall. "Yowza! An escape route. You know, I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me." Rose rolled her eyes.

"Do we tend to say yowza?"

"That's enough. Let it go, okay?" Rose couldn't help but laugh and got a look for that one. "We're under stress." The Doctor went to work on pulling the grating off and made sure everyone was safely in the tunnel before sealing it back up. As she crawled through the tunnels Rose couldn't help but remember another time when she had crawled through ventilation shafts. She couldn't help but giggle at the corresponding stressful events.

"You alright?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, sorry, just not the first time I've been chased through ventilation shafts. Probably won't be the last. At least Lucifer isn't here." He gave her an odd look but Rose could only grin back at him. It had been one of the odder experiences. Jimmy leant a hand out of the tunnel and Rose brushed off her knees.

"The army will send a recon team out." Buzzer said.

"We need to find a way to contact the mainland." Cleaves spoke up as they walked down the basement halls.

"What about Rory and Jen? They are both out there." Amy spoke up quickly.

"No! This place is a maze. It takes a long time to find someone in a maze. I bet you lot have got a computer map, haven't you?" The Ganger Doctor, who had taken lead, asked.

"If we can get the power running, we can scan for them." Cleaves answered. "It will be a lot quicker."

"Gangers and humans show up the same on the map." Everyone looked at Rose. Both Doctors gave her identical satisfied grins. "Just sayin'." She shrugged. Everyone started to cough about the same time.

"Doctor, you said, earlier, to breathe." Amy reminded.

"Very important, Pond, breathe." The Ganger Doctor said, though he was coughing too. Rose wondered, through her own coughing, whether the Ganger version of him had a bypass system also. "Acid interacted with the stone, creating an asphyxiant miasma."

"Choking gas. Extra heavy." The Doctor said, leaning over and choking, though a bit less than everyone else. "If we could get above it."

"Evac tower, this way!" Cleaves yelled before leading the way. Everyone followed quickly after her.

It took a bit of stumbling and more coughing but they finally climbed up the stairs to the tower.

"I think I coughed so hard, I pulled a muscle or something." Amy said, gasping and grabbing her stomach. The Ganger Doctor helped her up. "It's okay. It's good. It's easing off. Whew!" A bell started ringing.

"Midnight." Jimmy said softly. "It's Adam's Birthday." Rose had no idea who Adam was but she touched Jimmy's arm lightly, offering comfort because he had been kind to her. "My son's 5." He told Rose, looking down at her and looking a bit proud. "Happy Birthday, Bud."

"Can you really get the power back?" Cleaves asked as both Doctors worked on the computers.

"Oh, there's always some power floating around." The Doctor said, giving a glance at Rose.

"Sticking to the wires like bits of lint." The Ganger Doctor finished.

"Can you stop finishing each other's-" Amy started but both Doctor's interrupted her.

"Sentences. No probs."

"It's best just to ignore it, if they know it gets a rise out of you they'll just continue on doin' it." Rose advised, sitting in a chair off to the side. She could help but she was afraid of turning all glow-y and she knew the other humans in the room had had enough weirdness for one night.

"No, but, hang on, you said that the TARDIS was stuck in acid, so won't she be damaged?" Amy asked.

"Nah, she's a tough old thing!" The Doctor said, sounding quite offended. "Tough… old… sexy."

"Yeah, tough, dependable sexy." The Ganger answered and Amy looked a bit disgusted but she let that drop.

"Come on, okay? How can you both be real?" Amy asked, taking a step forward.

"Well, because we are. I'm the Doctor."

"Yeah, and so am I- we both contain the knowledge of over 900 years of memory and experience, we both wear the same bow-tie, which is cool. Because bow-ties are." The Ganger Doctor answered back.

"And always will be."

"But how did the flesh read you because you weren't linked up to it." Amy asked.

"Well, it must've been after I examined it. That's when the new, genuine Doctor was created." Rose's eye brows raised because it was the Ganger Doctor speaking, not the Time Lord version. What was he up too and why did he feel the need to trick Amy?

"Ta-da!" The Doctor said.

"No getting away from it- one of you was here first." Amy said and Rose could see the struggle the red head was going through. She had gone through it herself after all, but Rose hoped Amy would be a bit more open minded than her younger self. Rose had done some damage to the half-human Doctor, thinking he wasn't truly the Doctor.

"Well, okay, after the flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now, new shoes- a situation which does not confront me learned self here." The Ganger Doctor said.

"That satisfy you, Pond?" The Doctor asked, grinning at her.

"Don't call me Pond, please." Amy said, causing both of the Doctors to study her. "What?"

"Interesting- you definitely feel more affection for him than me." The Doctor said, though he was really referring to himself as the Ganger Doctor. Rose hadn't really figured out yet the reason for the switch.

"No, no, I- look, you're fine, and everything, but he's the Doctor, no offense- being _almost_ the Doctor is pretty damn impressive." Amy said and Rose winced.

"Being almost the Doctor is like being no Doctor at all." The Doctor said, sounding upset.

"Don't overreact." Amy said, looking over at the Ganger Doctor for help.

"You might as well call me 'Smith'." The Doctor continued on and Rose felt her heart drop for the second time that day. She closed her eyes tightly and wished she could get away from this conversation. It was hitting too close to home, too close to all those memories she had been doing a pretty damn good job of burying deep inside of her.

"Smith?" Amy asked.

"John Smith." The Doctor answered and Rose wished to be anywhere but here.

"Yes! Communication a gogo." Ganger Doctor shouted.

"Find Rory. Show me the scanny tracky screen." Amy demanded of Cleaves as she rushed over. "Come on Rory, let's be having ya'."

"There's no sign of him anywhere." Cleaves said.

"Come on, come on, baby, show yourself." Amy whispered to herself. Rose felt someone's hand slip into hers and she opened her eyes to find herself staring into Ganger Doctor's face. He was kneeling next to her chair.

"We don't think sometimes," He whispered apologetically to her. Rose squeezed his hand back.

"I'm okay, I'm always okay." Rose confirmed but for some reason that just made him look all the sadder.

"St. Johns calling the mainland." Cleaves was saying but it was all background noise to Rose.

"Of course you are, Rose Tyler, but it's also alright not to be." Ganger Doctor said, running his thumb over her knuckles. Rose leaned forward to press her forehead against his.

"No it's not, not right now." Rose said, knowing there was something deeply wrong going on and it didn't stop here, at what was happening between Gangers and humans. "But what you're doin', what you both are doin', it's cruel." Rose lowered her voice so they couldn't be overheard, though no one was paying them an ounce of attention. The Ganger Doctor leant back so their foreheads were no longer touching but he cupped her face, running his thumb over the apple of her cheek before pressing a quick, chaste kiss to her forehead.

"Your gangers?" Rose heard another voice ask.

"Yes, our gangers are attacking us." Cleaves answered back. "We need you to take us off the island immediately and wipe them out." The Doctor and his doppelganger shared a look. Rose slowly came to her feet and stared at the back of Cleaves head. The Ganger Doctor laced his fingers with Rose's just as Rose was about to take a step forward.

"Copy that, St. John's. Shuttles dispatched. Hang on."

"You'll need to airlift us off the roof of the evac tower. And, Captain, any further transmission sent by me must come with the following codeword. I'm typing it, in case they're listening in."

"Got it, we'll swing in, get you out, and decommission the flesh." Then the transmission ended. The Ganger Doctor squeezed Rose's hand before moving back over to the computer when Cleaves abandoned it. Amy sat down at his side.

"We're going to get out, we are, we're going to get out." Jimmy said to Buzzer.

"We're not leaving without them." Amy said soundly.

"I want them found, too, but it's about casualties, isn't it?" Buzzer asked. "It can't be helped."

"You've never been in an actual battle, have you?" Rose asked and the room went silent. "Because if you had you wouldn't be sayin' something so stupid right now." Rose was all about compassion and she could forgive just about anything but she wouldn't be just abandoning Rory. And she certainly wasn't going to allow the gangers to be sent to their death.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed or favorited or just plain read this story! Hope you enjoyed this newest chapter! And my beta-reader is currently a bit occupied with doing real-life things so any mistakes you find are my own and I'll put the revised copy up as soon as she has the time to check it over!**


	8. Chapter 8

"What are you doing?" Amy asked the Ganger Doctor, choosing to ignore Buzzer.

"Making a phone call." The Ganger Doctor answered, fiddling with the computers.

"Who to?"

"No one yet. It's on delay."

"Right, not getting it. Why, exactly, are you making a phone call?" Amy asked.

"Because, Amy, I am and always will be the optimist. The hope of farflung hopes and dreamer of improbable dreams." The Ganger Doctor said, spinning around in his chair before spinning Amy around, making her laugh. Rose was only half watching this but her attention was on the Doctor, who was watching the scene unfold. "The wheels are in motion. Done." Amy sat back, crossing her arms over her chest and looked at the Doctor who was standing a couple meters away.

"You know, really, there can be only one." Amy said and at the questioning noise the Ganger Doctor made she continued on. "Nothing. Carry on, be amazing." Amy stood up, color draining from her face. She began to slowly make her way across the room. She gasped loudly, jumping back.

"Amy?" The Ganger Doctor asked worriedly, spinning around from his fiddling with the computer. "What happened?"

"It's her again." Amy rushed over to the Ganger Doctor.

"It's who again?"

"There's a woman I keep seeing, a woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me- Doctor?"

"It's nothing."

"It doesn't seem like nothing."

"It's time memory. Like a mirage. There's nothing to worry about." _Liar_, Rose couldn't help but think. _No such thing as 'time memory'_.

"It's in my head." The Doctor said softly. He shook his head before walking out of the door.

"Hey, hold on!"

"Don't go!" Jimmy and Buzzer shouted out.

"No, leave it to me." Amy grabbed a torch and ran out after him. Rose took that opportunity to take Amy's abandoned seat and spin the Ganger Doctor around to look at her.

"Explain yourself now or this little experiment you have goin' on ends now." Rose demanded, though she kept her voice soft. She hadn't known Amy long but she still felt a bit protective over her, even if she was protecting the red head from the Doctor himself.

"We need to see if you can tell the difference, the difference between ganger and human." The Ganger Doctor said, adjusting his bow-tie. "Get more advanced after this, just like the humans themselves. Grow and evolve, if we can sort this mess out. What wars have you seen?"

"Not the one between ganger and humans if that's what you're askin'." Rose answered evasively. She didn't want to talk about the battles she was forced to be involved in. "So he made a double of himself just to see if Amy, who's known you since the beginnin' of this regeneration, can tell the difference?" Rose asked, feeling her throat tighten up with each word.

"Sums it up." The Ganger Doctor said then studied Rose's face. "This is important Rose, it's for Amy."

"It still seems cruel to me." Rose admitted quietly. The Ganger Doctor took hold of her hands again, squeezing them gently. He felt warmer now or maybe that was just because her own hands were so cold.

"Don't know why you put up with me." The Ganger Doctor attempted at a joke. Rose gave him a half smile but couldn't meet his eyes. She had pulled herself from another dimension into this one to be with him, to stop him when he went too far but how could she say any of that? She had been so much braver with her feelings when she was younger.

"Must be the whole seein' the universe thing." Rose joked back instead of revealing any of her feelings. She felt too raw right then, far too vulnerable already with thoughts of her half-human Doctor rolling around in her head. "Don't hold it against her Doctor." Rose pleaded, looking him in the eye to see him smile. A big, genuine smile.

"You called me Doctor."

"Of course I did you big dummy, but what is up with this weird obsession you have with makin' doubles of yourself?" Rose grinned, her tongue peeking out between her teeth. The Ganger Doctor leaned closer and Rose felt her breath hitch but then he leaned back and Rose felt stupid. "Bit Freudin, that."

"Comfy chair." The Ganger Doctor said with relish. Rose laughed.

"You think I should go talk to the Gangers? Or maybe us two together? The Ganger and the human ambassador, I wasn't involved in whatever the hell happened so- stop shakin' your head at me before I've even worked out the plan." Rose finished, a bit frustrated.

"Too much acid out there to go looking for them, plus they are still scared and angry and if they hurt you I don't know if I could help them any longer. And I really do need to help them." The Ganger Doctor said, his voice deep and serious. He leaned forward again, this time their noses nearly touching. "Bit weird, this, not really a Time Lord but not really human, not really ganger either. The flesh is set up to mimic humans but it took a Time Lord biology and tried to make it fit, tried to make it human. I don't think it worked." Rose put her hand against the side of his face then brought one up to his forehead, using the back of her hand to feel for his temperature. He was definitely hotter than before.

"You're not stabilizin', are you?" Rose asked, slightly horrified. The Ganger Doctor grasped her hand and pressed it against his face, closing his eyes as he did so.

"I'll be alright." The Ganger Doctor then sat up straight, looking confused. "Why?" He asked but Rose didn't have time to question him as Amy ran through the door.

"Keep him away from me." Amy ordered before the Doctor stepped through and slammed the door behind him.

"Did you sense it?" The Doctor asked.

"Briefly. Not as strong as you." The Ganger Doctor answered, looking between Amy and the Doctor.

"Amy, I'm sorry." The Doctor tried but Amy cut him off.

"No, okay? You keep away. We can't trust you." Amy ground out.

"Amy," Rose said softly, glancing over at the Ganger Doctor.

"It would appear I can connect to the Flesh." The Doctor explained to the others in the room.

"You are flesh." Amy accused, making the word 'flesh' sound like a derogatory term.

"I'm beginning to understand what it's been through. What it needs." The Doctor continued on.

"What you want. You are it." Amy cut in.

"Amy, stop it." Rose said warningly but all the red head did was give her a nasty look.

"It's much more powerful than we thought. The flesh can grow, correct?" The Doctor asked, doing a good job of ignoring Amy but then again, she wasn't really talking about him. The Ganger Doctor's hand was twined with her own, his too warm fingers holding hers in a near-crushing grip that loosened after a moment.

"Its cells can divide." Cleaves answered.

"Well, now it wants to do that at will. It wants revenge. It's in pain, angry. It wants revenge." The Doctor said softly, shifting his shoulders beneath his tweed.

"I was right. You're not the Doctor. You can't ever be. You're just a copy." Amy looked away from him in disgust.

"That's enough, Amy, you don't know what you're talkin' about." Rose stood up as she tried to reason with Amy, though she felt more than a little angry. The Ganger Doctor kept a hold of her hand, Rose wasn't quite sure if it was more to keep her from striding over to the red head or for his own comfortable, perhaps both.

"I'm sorry if I can't just accept who ever calls themselves the Doctor like you do, but there's just one Doctor, the only one that counts and just because he claims his name doesn't make him the real one." Amy snapped. Rose took a step back as if she had been physically hit. The Doctor stepped between the two of them, his back to Rose.

"Doctor, it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hmm?" Cleaves said, sounding about as self important and pompous as a person could get.

"Hold on a minute, hold your horses." The Ganger Doctor intervened, standing up next to Rose. "I thought I'd explained this, I'm him, he's me."

"Doctor, we have no issue with you, but when it comes to your ganger-" Cleaves started.

"Don't be so absurd." The Ganger Doctor said. Rose turned her head slightly, just enough to see Buzzer slowly approaching from behind.

"Buzzer."

"Sure, boss." Buzzer grabbed a barrel, sitting it in the middle of the room. "Take a seat, mate."

"Nice barrel. Very comfy. Why not? Is this really what you want?" The Doctor asked, looking over at Amy.

"I should warn you not to attempt anything else." Rose said, staring at Cleaves. Rose had never been a violent person but she had grown up quite a bit since she was 19. She could defend herself readily but mostly only resorted to her Torchwood training when others she cared about were threatened. It didn't help that Cleaves and Buzzer were not at the top of her list of favorite people right now.

"What? Take on all of us? You? A wee little girl?" Buzzer asked and Rose turned to him.

"Yes." Rose answered back. She didn't feel the need to explain herself. If she actually resorted to violence it was best they underestimated her. She didn't want to hurt Jimmy or Dickens but she also wouldn't let anyone hurt the Doctor, ganger or otherwise.

"You can't take us all out, hardly doubt you could take even one of us out." Cleaves sounded dismissive.

"Rose." The Ganger Doctor said but Rose didn't look at him. Rose gave Cleaves a look over before turning back to Buzzer. Something was making Cleaves weak, Rose had noted that when she first met her. An illness, something that was deep within her, throbbing and pulsing. Rose tried to ignore that feeling, _the other_ inside of her smelling weakness. It wasn't very human, that. Buzzer was strong but he was slow and depended too much on his strength. Rose didn't want to hurt Jimmy or Dickens, but they would stick with their team she knew that much.

"Rose, why don't you keep me company on my barrel? It is quite nice." The Doctor asked, making room for her. Rose gave the Ganger Doctor a questioning look and he released her hand so she could walk over and sit down next to the Doctor, smoothing out her skirt and then staring Buzzer in the eye. "You use to be better at keeping the peace." The Doctor and his ganger exchanged a look over her head, which Rose decided to ignore, for now.

"You use to have better taste in companions." Rose regretted the words the second they were out of her mouth. The Doctor gave her a disapproving look but there was nothing to be done now. But she still felt raw and Amy had found the weak spot within Rose and tore it open. The Doctor had been right, she use to be much better at keeping the peace, and she was worried that the Doctor would see something new in her, something gained through her years away from her that would change his mind on her. The Doctor was not the only one who could hide who he truly was.

"This is the shuttle. We're right above you, but we can't get low enough. Gamma static could fry our nav controls. Sit tight. We'll get to you. Just-" The Ganger Doctor pointed his sonic at Cleaves as the transmission cut out.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Jimmy asked, standing next to Amy in front of the terminal.

"I can't find Rory, I'm going out there." Amy said resolutely.

"We could use the sonic to track him. Humans and gangers give off slightly different signals. The sonic needs to tell the difference." The Ganger Doctor said, looking at his sonic and frowning at whatever he saw.

"Oh, so the sonic knows Gangers are different, so the other Doctor is different, then." Amy said, arms crossed over her chest. Rose gave a sigh and leaned against the Doctor. He shifted underneath her slightly and she found herself in a much more comfortable position. The tweed beneath her cheek was so different from the leather jacket or the cotton trench coat but she was getting use to it.

"He is the Doctor." The Ganger Doctor said, sounding about as fed-up with all of this as Rose was.

"Not to me. I can tell." Amy said and Rose snorted which earned her a light poke from the Doctor. She peeked up at him to see his questioning look. She looked down at his shoes and rolled her eyes. Yes, she knew he was faking it. The Doctor gave her a small, proud smile.

"Are you sure you're not prejudiced?" The Ganger Doctor asked.

"Nice try, but I know, okay? We've been through too much. You're my Doctor, end of." Amy said.

"Do not regenerate on her, she will not handle it well." Rose stage-whispered. The Doctor shifted, elbowing her softly, which caused Rose to let out soft squeal of laughter when he hit a ticklish spot. The Doctors eye brows shot up but Rose gave her a Torchwood dead-eyed stare that clearly stated 'do not even think about it'. But he was very obviously thinking about it, storing away that bit of information for later.

"We need to get you to the TARDIS." The Doctor said, glancing down at her arm. He must have noticed that she was favoring it again, the pain slowly returning.

"Hey, there's a camera up, we've got a visual." Buzzer said.

"That's Rory and Jennifer." Amy was staring at the screen.

"They're heading for the thermostatic room." Cleaves sat up as she looked at the screen.

"Let's go get them." Amy looked over at the Ganger Doctor, who was tossing the sonic into the air. At the last moment he tossed it over to the Doctor, who caught it, managing to really elbow Rose in the side this time.

"Hang on. You can't let him go. Are you crazy?" Cleaves sounded appalled.

"Am I crazy, Doctor?" The Ganger Doctor asked.

"Well, you did once plumb your brain into the core of an entire planet, just to halt its orbit and win a bet." The Doctor answered, rubbing Rose's side in apology as the Ganger Doctor grinned, though his eyes lingered on the Doctors fingers against Rose's side.

"He can't go rescue them. I'm going." Amy demanded. Rose slapped the Doctors hand away because he was getting dangerously close to tickling her but he turned his hand about and nimbly grabbed her wrist before pointing the sonic at her injured skin. Rose sighed in relief again, but she knew it was just a temporary fix.

"Do you now? I want him to go." The Ganger Doctor stood up, facing Amy. "And I'm rather adamant." The Doctor also stood up.

"Well, then, he'll need company." Buzzer said. "Right, boss? It's fine. I'll handle it."

"Oh come on, are you serious? What the hell has he done to deserve an escort except help you since basically the moment he came into existence?" Rose was completely done with this. The Doctor pulled her into a hug, a much needed hug. Rose let out a frustrated sigh against his chest.

"Thank you, Buzzer." The Ganger Doctor said, snapping his fingers.

"It'll be alright." The Doctor said to Rose, pulling away from her. "I'll find him." This he directed at Amy before walking towards the door.

"I can't explain it to you now, but I need you to trust him. Can you do that for me, Amy?" The Ganger Doctor asked.

"And what if you're wrong?" Amy questioned back.

"No, Rose, I need you to stay here." The Ganger Doctor said instead of answering Amy.

"Did you know Buzzer was voted most likely to abandon a Ganger in a dark, acid full tunnel?" Rose asked, hands on hips as Amy walked past her.

"He'll be fine, I need your help here." The Ganger Doctor pleaded. The Doctor gave a small tug on her hair, giving her a reassuring grin.

"These temperature gauges are rising." Cleaves commented, staring at the screens. "Jennifer and Rory must've shut off the underground cooling vents."

"Why do that? It'll kill us." Dickens asked, sounding quite panicked.

"There's a million gallons of boiling acid under our feet."

"And now it's heating up. How long until it blows?" The Ganger Doctor asked. The building shook.

"Gangers or no gangers, we need to get the hell out of here!" Dickens yelled.

"Shuttle, we need evac. Where are you? Can you hear me? Can you-" Cleaves groaned and grabbed a hold of her head.

"Cleaves? Cleaves. Cleaves, sit down." The Ganger Doctor said worriedly. Jimmy and him helped Cleaves into a seat.

"I'm fine." Cleaves assured. "I'm waiting for results, so let it go."

"It's a very deep parietal clot." The Ganger Doctor said softly and Rose suddenly understood why the he scanned her. And she understood why she felt like Cleaves was ill.

"How can you possib-" She cut herself off and the Doctor sighed, looked away. "Inoperable?"

"On Earth, yes."

"Well, seeing as Earth's all that's on offer." Cleaves narrowed her eyes. "I'm no healthy spring chicken and you're no weatherman, right?" The whole building shook again before the Doctor could answer.

"Ah, something just cracked- I heard it." Amy said.

"Yeah. We can't stay here! Let's go!" The Ganger Doctor yelled.

"He's right. Let's shift." Jimmy confirmed.

"Cleaves to shuttle. Respond. We need to move and we can't be collected from the evac tower."

"Give us the codeword."

"The codeword is- ah!" The tower shook again and the computers sparked. Then an alarm started to go off.

"Cleaves? Cleaves! It's dead. It's dead. We need to get out of here. We need to get back downstairs and get those vents back on- come on." The Ganger Doctor ordered, forcing them all out before following himself.

The Ganger Doctor led them out, down the stairs and into the darkened halls.

"Ah, the eyes have it." The Ganger Doctor said and Rose felt her stomach twist at the eyes upon the walls, watching them.

"Why are they here?"

"To accuse. Us." The Ganger Doctor answered before walking further down the hall.

"Ignore them. It's not far." Cleaves said, making them all move past her to their designation.

The Ganger Doctor and Cleaves worked on the machine.

"It's a chemical chain reaction now, I can't stop it." The Ganger Doctor said but he was still pressing buttons. "This place is going to blow sky-high."

"Exactly how long have we got?" Cleaves asked.

"An hour, five seconds- uh, somewhere in between." The Ganger Doctor answered frantically. The alarm became louder, lights going off everywhere. He screamed and forced them all out of the room, running down the hall as things sparked and flared around them.

"Oh, Rory! Rory." Amy said up ahead, and then she was hugging Rory.

"There's a way out. Jennifer found it. A secret tunnel under the crypt." Rory told them all.

"Under the crypt? It's not on the schematics." Cleaves said in disbelief.

"It leads right out of the monastery. Maybe even under the TARDIS, Doctor- follow me." Rory started running down the hall and they all followed after him quickly. Rose fell back a few steps to talk with the Ganger Doctor.

"What about the other you? And the gangers?" Rose asked quietly.

"Working on it." The Ganger Doctor said.

"Oh good, well as long as your workin' on it, cheers." Rose grumbled, causing the Ganger Doctor to grin down at her. It was an infuriating look, especially when it caused the corners of her mouth to twitch upwards. But she forced the answering grin away, she would not encourage his behavior. One Doctor keeping secrets was enough.

They were led into the room with the boiling acid, which seemed like a really bad place to be to Rose but she didn't argue.

"We can't leave without Buzzer!" Jimmy said with conviction.

"I'll go back for him." Cleaves went back up the stairs.

"Doctor, look, I'd better tell you- I haven't been quite straight with you." Rory said from the door right before Jen closed it in Cleaves face.

"Rory!" The Ganger Doctor shouted. "Rory Pond. Roranicus Pondicus!" He ran up the stairs and slammed his hand against the glass window.

"Rory, what the hell are you playing at?" Amy screamed.

"They've been throwing away old flesh and leaving it to rot, alive. I think the world should see that." Rory said through the door.

"Rory, there is not time." The Ganger Doctor said gently. "The factory's about to explode!" He continued on, less gently. Amy pushed the Ganger Doctor away so she could slam her hand against the door. The Ganger Doctor ran to the vat of acid.

"This is going to overheat and fill the room with acid. Just as a point of interest." The Ganger Doctor commented.

"This is literally what I was thinking about earlier, how dying from acid would be the worst way to go. That and the Hemorrid, creature on Torres IV. Swallows you whole, digests you a bit, spits you out, still quite alive, and does the whole thing over again. I thought that seemed like the worst way to die before." Rose commented dryly.

"And we can't stop it?" Cleaves asked, ignoring Rose completely.

"Just as a point of interest? No." Dickens began to lower the top of the vat, which seemed like a smart idea to Rose though she wasn't quite sure that would help much.

"That will never hold it." Jimmy commented, confirming Rose's fear.

"If you have a better plan, I'm all ears. In fact, if you have a better plan, I'll take you to a planet where everyone is all ears." The Ganger Doctor offered, near desperate.

"The acid's eating through." Cleaves dead-panned, watching the boiling vat. The Ganger Doctor pulled her away just as it started steaming. The Ganger Doctor turned, pulled on his suspenders and adjusted his bow-tie as he looked down at Rose with a grin. Though confused, Rose couldn't help but grin back.

"What do you want?" Rose asked. "I don't have a better plan, if you hadn't given your sonic away we could have just opened the door."

"I'm preparing." The Ganger Doctor said.

"Preparing to die? No offense Doctor, but I don't think it'll matter much how you look when you're splattered with acid." Rose could hardly get the words out of her mouth.

"Preparing to die? No no, got about another five minutes until that vat explodes and so many things can happen in five minutes. Like what? You may ask. Good question Rose Tyler! Like going to a store to blow it up and finding a little blip on my sonic that says there's a living, breathing, helpless little human in the basement. Five minutes was all it took for me to find that little blip, grab her hand and tell her to run. Haven't really stopped since, never really wanted to." The Doctor had turned her until his back was to the vat and his body was blocking hers. She didn't think that'd help much when it exploded but she didn't say anything about that.

"Then what, exactly, are you preparing for?" Rose asked. The Doctor leant down but then Jimmy was screaming. Dickens and Rose grabbed him, pulling him away from the steam that had burnt him.

"Let me through!" The Ganger Jimmy shouted as he ran into the room. Rose hadn't even noticed that the door had opened.

"There's nothing we can do, the acid's reached his heart." The Ganger Doctor said in an emotionless voice as the Ganger Jimmy knelt down.

"No." Ganger Jimmy whispered. Rose clasped Jimmy's hand in her own. "Hang in there, mate."

"I'm quite handsome from this angle." Jimmy said, giving Rose a pain filled grin that brought tears brimming to her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Ganger Jimmy said. "I'm the fake. Adam deserves his real dad."

"Shut up."

"What do you want me to do? Anything. Just say."

"The way things are, mate it's up to you now." He was gasping in pain but he reached up and took the necklace from around his neck, the one with his wedding ring on it. "Be a dad. You remember how." And then he wasn't gasping anymore. Rose bowed her head, clutching his prone hand.

"Jimmy Weeks, you're a dad." The Ganger Doctor said. Ganger Jimmy stood up, staring at the ring in his hand before walking determinedly up the stairs. Everyone filed out after him. The Ganger Doctor pulled Rose to her feet. "It's not over yet," He said softly, regrettably, apologetically. Rose wiped at her face before walking out of the room, her hand clasping the Ganger Doctors hand in a white knuckle grip.

They entered a room that looked like a mess hall. Amy and Rory embraced as the gangers and humans faced off.

"Daddy, it's me!" A hologram of a little boy in his jim jams cried out happily.

"Hey, sunshine. What are you up to?" Ganger Jimmy asked, his face breaking out into a smile that was equal parts sad and happy.

"Opening all my presents."

"Ha, ha good lad. You have fun today. And remember, your dad, he loves you very, very much."

"When are you coming home?"

"Daddy's coming home today, Adam." The Doctor said, standing behind ganger Jimmy. Adam cheered and started to do a little dance. Rose turned and allowed herself to be pulled into a hug by the Ganger Doctor.

"Now we need to move." The Doctor said seriously.

They ran. Alarms blaring, walls crumbling, ground shaking. And they continued to run until there was a growling up ahead.

"Run. Run. Run!" And then they were running again, in the opposite direction and away from whatever was making that horrible growling noise behind them.

"This door doesn't lock!" Ganger Dicken's yelled out in panic after they had rushed into a room.

"No, but the far one does." They opened the door and Dicken's was running down the hall. The door slammed shut but Dicken's was on the wrong side and then they heard the scream. Ganger Dicken's let out an anguished sound before slamming the door shut. He, along with the ganger Doctor and Amy held the door closed.

"Here she comes." The Doctor warned as the ganger Cleaves helped to hold the door shut. The roof grumbled and groaned before caving in and the TARDIS slammed into the ground.

"Oh! She does like to make an entrance." The Ganger Doctor said proudly. The Doctor opened the door.

"Everyone, move!" The Doctor yelled after opening the door.

"Go!" The ganger Doctor shoved Dickens away from the door.

"Get on board, go!" Ganger Cleaves yelled to herself.

"I'm not leaving." Cleaves said as whatever was outside the door banged against it.

"Go." Cleaves turned and ran into the TARDIS.

"Hey, hey now's our chance." Amy whispered.

"I have to stay, hold this door closed. And give you time to dematerialize." The Ganger Doctor said and Rose felt, for the third time that day, her heart drop.

"Oh don't be crazy. Okay, what happens to you, hmm?"

"Well, this place is just about to explode, but I can stop her."

"Both of you can survive. There has to be a way."

"Or, perhaps, you think I should stay, instead, Mr. Smith." The Doctor said.

"No, of course not, but, look- this man, I've flown with him, you know? And you are amazing, and, yeah, I misjudged you. But you're not him. I'm sorry." Amy explained softly. The Doctor looked down sadly then glanced at Rose.

"It is him, they swapped shoes Amy. He's the Doctor." Rose explained.

"And I'm the Flesh." The Ganger Doctor said, still up against the wall.

"You can't be. You're the real him." Amy said in disbelief.

"No, I'm not, and I haven't been all along."

"What?"

"I'm the original Doctor, Amy." The Doctor reiterated. "We had to know if we were treated the same. It was important, vital, we learn about the Flesh and we could only do that through your eyes." The Doctor finally explained. Amy turned to look at the Ganger Doctor. Amy took a step forward and hugged him tightly.

"Amy, come on!" Rory shouted. Amy ran past them, into the TARDIS.

"Well, my death arrives, I suppose." The Ganger Doctor said flippantly.

"But this one we're not invited to." The Doctor said back.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing. Your molecular memory can survive this, you know. It may not be the end." The Doctor tossed the sonic back to his doppelganger.

"Yeah, well, if I turn up to nick all of your biscuits and Rose, then you'll know you were right, won't you?" The Doctor laughed then turned to Rose.

"No." Rose said, shaking her head.

"Rose, there's no time to argue." The Doctor said but Rose couldn't even look at him.

"Good thing I'm not arguin' then." But Rose wasn't moving.

"Rose, come here." The Ganger Doctor said softly, sadly. Rose felt her heart break and just when she thought she had pieced it back together again. She wondered at all the missing pieces she'd have now. How many would remain on this island? The Doctor turned his back as Rose stepped forward. "Rose Tyler."

"Stop, you can come with us, you don't have to do this." Rose could barely whisper. Her throat felt completely dry. The Ganger Doctor cupped her face, his hands far too warm.

"Wouldn't change a thing if I did, Time Lords weren't meant to be made into Flesh, I will never be able to stabilize, I'll burn up from the inside out." The Ganger Doctor explained something Rose had already guessed but hearing it spoken out loud didn't make it any easier. Tears streamed down her face and the Ganger Doctor used his thumbs to wipe them away. "I'm so sorry Rose."

"Not your fault," Rose shook her head lightly, tried to make herself stop crying but she couldn't. She had never gotten to say goodbye to her half-human Doctor and while this was not even comparable she didn't want to waste this goodbye crying. Her thoughts cemented, she wouldn't waste this goodbye. So she took a step forward and stood on her toes, pressing her lips to his. He was warm, a consuming heat that branded her to her soul.

Rose had meant it just to be a chaste kiss, didn't want to push him into something he may never have wanted in the first place. But then his arm wound around her waist and she was pulled flush against him. His other hand wound into her hair, angling her head to the side so he could kiss her deeper. Rose's fingertips grazed the skin on his too-warm cheek while her other hand was busy burying itself into the soft silk strands of his hair. He was burning beneath her, dying with no means of escaping. Flesh couldn't regenerate. It made Rose a bit desperate too, made her kiss him harder, longer than she should have given their current circumstances.

The door shuddered beneath them and the Ganger Doctor barely managed to turn his head in time to avoid chipping Rose's tooth. Rose shifted in his embrace, holding onto him with a desperation that scared her.

"I love you," She whispered into his ear, just for him to know, to hear. His arms tightened on her as the door shuddered again, and a large crack appeared in the frame. Rose felt a bit of a coward, admitting to this now, admitting it to this Doctor.

"Don't let us chase you off." The Ganger Doctor whispered back, his hold equaling hers but then she was stumbling back when the door was rammed again, the crack extending. "Go." There was a world of sadness in his eyes, matching her own. Rose turned and ran to the TARDIS, not willing to look back.

Rose tried to take in a deep breath but she couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into her lungs. She pressed her hand against her mouth, as if that would stop her from sobbing.

"You really don't care about the differences do you?" Jimmy asked, standing to her side. He didn't have the same memories of Rose that the other Jimmy did, didn't know her much at all but he was a kind man. A great father and he didn't like to see people in pain.

"There's no difference now. You're Jimmy, he's Dickens. What you do from now on is up to you." Rose was gently moved further into the TARDIS by the Doctor as he entered, closing the door behind him before rushing up to the console. "You might want to hold onto something, when we're runnin' away the landin's always get a bit rougher." Rose advised.

"Uh, the energy from the TARDIS will stabilize the Gangers for good." The Doctor was saying from his position by the console. "They're people now."

"And what happens to me?" Cleaves asked slowly. "Um, I still have this." She motioned to her head, to the clot inside.

"Ah! That's not a problem." The Doctor said, excited there was a problem he could easily fix. "I have something for that. It's- it's small, red, and it taste like burnt onions." The Doctor was snapping his fingers as he thought, both he and Amy ducked down under the console to look. "Ha!" He produced a small vile. "But it'll get rid of your blood clot." He tossed it to Cleaves, who, thankfully, caught it easily. He produced a red balloon from seemingly no where. "Happy endings."

The Doctor dropped off Jimmy first, to his son. Rose, with a warning not to use the nanogenes, went off to medbay to take care of her once again burning arm. It took Rose a while of searching to find the right machine but she managed it. Got it all set up and with a bit of fiddling and a small probing in her mind from the TARDIS she got it working and pointed the lightly glowing wand at her arm, getting her first good look at it.

It was a third degree burn and when she acknowledged that it throbbed with more pain. It had burned right through the epidermis, dermis, and down to the hypodermis level of her skin. Several different colors of angry red with dark brown, nearly black burnt spots scattered at the worst parts. Rose barely managed to hold back her gagging, glad she hadn't looked at the burnt and boiled skin before. She wished she didn't know so much about burns, but like the Doctor had said many times before, she was a bit jeopardy friendly. On her first trip out with the Doctor she had nearly gotten burned to death.

But the machine worked it's magic. It would still take a while to heal but the machine would take care of any infections and it would jump start the healing portion, kick it into overdrive so she would heal in half the time. Still hurt like hell though Rose was sure there would be something in this room to help with that too.

"Sent off Cleaves and Dickens to play ambassadors, make sure the world knows what they're doing to the Flesh. They'll be brilliant, might hold off the war for a while, maybe indefinitely, probably not though." The Doctor was rooting around in cabinets behind Rose but she kept her concentration on the task at hand, watching the skin on her arm repair itself.

"Of course they will, they're amazin'." Rose confirmed. The Doctor reached around her and flicked off the machine.

"Deep breathe Rose Tyler." Rose did as instructed before the Doctor sprayed her arm with a small squirt bottle. She let out a hiss of pain but that receded quickly and she was left with a cooling effect. The Doctor then wrapped up her arm, good and tight. "I'm afraid I'm goin' to need your help for the next part, I'm sorry." He wouldn't look at her as he gathered up the used supplies.

"I didn't actually think this was over just yet," Rose twisted the wrist on her right arm but she didn't feel much pain, just a bit of stiffness and soreness.

"Just beginning actually." The Doctor confirmed, giving her a sad, apologetic smile before looking away quickly. "He was right you know, I didn't think- this compared to what you-" He cleared his throat and Rose gave a small smile, deciding to help him out.

"It's fine Doctor, something is wrong with Amy, I've gathered that much and you needed to find out what it was." Rose waved her hand dismissively, trying to compartmentalize. "After this is all over I will need a trip to- um- what's it called? Planet of theme parks."

"Tribec!" The Doctor helped, sounding quite pleased. "Yes, a trip to Tribec-" He pulled out a little notebook and a small pencil.

"What's that?" Rose asked in amusement.

"Got a list going, of all the places I need to take you once all of this is sorted out. Got over six years of birthdays and holidays to make up for and I still owe you Barcelona." The Doctor tucked away the notebook as Rose stared at him in astonishment. He wiggled the fingers on his hand and she placed her hand within his and he was suddenly tugging her down the corridors, not letting her think too long on that new bit of information.

"Doctor!" Rory called out when they entered the console room. The Doctor's hand tightened on Rose's briefly. "What is happening to her?"

"Contractions." The Doctor said.

"Contractions?" Rory stepped closer, his eye brows drawn up.

"She's going into labor." Rory spun around to face Amy, who looked as confused as she was.

"Did he say? No. No, of course he didn't. Rory, um- I don't like this." Amy mumbled before grabbing her stomach in pain.

"You're going to have to start explaining some of this to me, Doctor." Rory demanded frantically.

"What, the birds and the bees?" The Doctor asked, releasing Rose's hand to walk over to the TARDIS to grab the new sonic it had just produced.

"Doctor, tell them what's goin' on." Rose was done with his flippant attitude.

"She's having a baby. I needed to see the Flesh in its early days. That's why I scanned it. That's why we were there, in the first place. I was going to drop you off for fish 'n' chips, first, but things happened and there was stuff and shenanigans. Beautiful word, shenanigans." The Doctor ranted while Rose watched Amy curl up on herself in pain. Despite their earlier spat Rose couldn't stand still while Amy was in pain so she stepped forward to help but the Doctor stopped her.

"Are you okay? It'll be okay." Rory assured.

"Breathe. I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh."

"What signal?" Amy asked.

"The signal to you."

"Doctor. Doctor." Amy pleaded and the Doctor stood straighter.

"Stand away from her, Rory." The Doctor commanded, looking down.

"Why?" Rory asked, sounding confused and hurt. "No! And why?" He took a stronger hold on Amy.

"Given what we've learned, I'll be as humane as I can be but I need to do this and you need to stand away!" Rory and Amy looked at each other. Amy shook her head slightly as Rory looked at the Doctor, a dawning realization coming to his face. He took a step back and Rose could see his heart breaking in his eyes.

"No." Amy pleaded. "No." She said again, gripping Rory's hand, refusing to let go as Rory stepped further back. Amy turned back to the Doctor, tears in her eyes. "Doctor, I am frightened. I'm properly, properly scared."

"Don't be. Hold on." The Doctor assured, taking a step to her. "We're coming for you, I swear. Whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you." He was standing in front of her now, touching her face softly.

"I'm right here." Amy said, grabbing hold of his hand.

"No, you're not, you haven't been here for a long, long time." The Doctor stepped back, pulling away from her then pointing the sonic at Amy. Rory let out a shuddering gasp as Amy shook her head. It took about half a second for her to melt away to a pile of Flesh.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh gosh, thanks for all the lovely reviews! It was incredibly encouraging. My beta-reader hasn't had a chance to go through this chapter yet, so all mistakes are my own, once she has had a chance to check it over I'll post the revised chapter but I hope you enjoy it all the same!**


	9. Chapter 9

"Doctor," Rose ground her teeth together as she followed the Doctor, who was bounding around the console.

"No." The Doctor stated firmly. "No, no, absolutely not!"

"You need help!" Rose shouted then decided to approach this from a different angle. Figuratively and literally. She walked around the opposite side of the console to intercept him then grabbed him by the suspenders before he could move. The grin on his face told her he didn't mind much. Rose felt her cheeks flush but she ignored that, for now. "No offense Doctor, but I don't know any of these people, and I need someone I know will have my back, and he will. We both know it so why are you fightin' it?"

"He's likely to get you killed!" The Doctor said, losing his grin.

"He's more likely to get himself killed for me, now stop arguin' or I'll start pushin' buttons, starting with-" Rose's hand hovered over the console and she felt the TARDIS prod her mind. She posed her hand over a small, insignificant looking blue button. "This one."

"No, no, absolutely under no circumstances do you ever, I mean ever, press that button Rose Tyler!" The Doctor shouted, grabbing her wrist but Rose just twisted around to use her other hand. The Doctor snatched that wrist too, and they ended up in a twisted mess with him to her back, holding both her arms criss-crossed over her chest. It was probably a good thing he couldn't see her face, then he'd see how hilarious she thought the situation was, as if she'd go around pushing random buttons on the TARDIS.

"I was a gymnast you know, I could touch it with my foot." Rose threatened.

"You were a gymnast over a decade ago!" The Doctor snapped back, pulling her further back into him, so she rested up against him. Rose felt a little breathless by the action but she didn't let that stop her.

"Is that a challenge?" Rose teased, lifting up her booted foot slowly.

"Okay, okay! We'll pick him up, just stop it." The Doctor's voice seemed to crack a bit but he released her and was running around the console before Rose could question him.

"You two are adorable," Jenny commented and Rose grinned over at her. Rose and Jenny had started a quick friendship, though Rose couldn't say the same for Jenny's wife, Madame Vastra, who looked at Rose like she was a particularly interesting bug.

"Shut up!" The Doctor yelled.

"Thank you." Rose said at the same time. "You're bein' right rude to a bunch of people who agreed to help you sneak into an army base to rescue someone none of them really know." The Doctor landed the TARDIS with a shudder then stood in front of Rose, pushing into her personal space but Rose didn't really mind. She never had minded with the Doctor.

"Are you going to go get him because I could easily just leave." The Doctor was pouting, just a bit, which only made Rose want to tease him all the more.

"This better not be like Argos Terminus-"

"You leave a girl on a spa meteorite one time and you never hear the end of it!"

"You could have just told me instead of abandoning me-"

"I would never have-"

"You always leave out the important information!" Rose poked at the Doctors chest and he caught her wrist, careful of her bandaged arm.

"I had something very important to do-"

"Yeah and I'm just some dumb ape who would have only gotten in the way."

"I never said that!"

"Well this is like old times." Rose spun around, grinning at the familiar figure standing at the door of the TARDIS, which Rory had opened. Rose hadn't even heard the knock. "Rose." Rose was off and in his arms in a matter of seconds.

"Jack! I missed you! How have you been? How's Cardiff Torchwood? Any progress with Ianto yet? Have you just tried smilin' at him, usually works for everyone else. Did I tell you last time I met your other self in that other dimension? Little bit of a stickler for rules, nearly threw me in an intergalactic jail, I didn't even know there was such a thing." Rose rattled off causing Jack to laugh, his handsome face splitting into a charming grin.

"I knew you'd come back, couldn't stay away from me, could you?" He grinned widely at her and Rose laughed, feeling lighthearted for the first time in a couple days. It had been all about hunting around the universe, blowing up Cybermen armadas and picking people out of time and space.

"We're goin' on a rescue mission and we need your help." Rose explained.

"Damsel in distress?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Hey!" Rory cut in. Jack turned his attention to the roman dressed Rory and a different grin covered Jack's face that time.

"Hello." Jack greeted.

"Oh don't start." The Doctor said in annoyance, coming to stand next to Rose.

"I was only saying hello." Jack defended.

"Exactly." Jack looked the Doctor up and down, and Rose noticed with amusement that the Doctor stood up straighter and adjusted his bow-tie.

"Doctor." Jack then stepped forward and the two men hugged, patting each other on the back and grinning. Rose mentally patted herself on the back for her brilliance.

"Are your people okay with you leavin'?" Rose asked as the Doctor jumped back to the console.

"Yeah, well no, they'll be mad, I was gone a long time the last time the Doctor showed up. But they understand, they've got family they'd drop everything for." Jack explained with a shrug as he looked around the new console room and whistled. "Bright and shiny. Didn't know it could do this."

"The Doctor trashed the old one with his regeneration, apparently it's like changing a desktop." Rose explained.

"Who is this?" Rory asked Rose.

"This is Captain Jack Harkness, former Time Agent and companion of the Doctor, now leader of Torchwood Cardiff, amongst other things I'm sure." Rose introduced formally. "Jack, this is Rory, it's his wife that's been taken. And their baby."

"They took your kid?" Jack asked, looking over at Rory with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Yeah." Rory answered, his jaw stiff as he ground his teeth. Jack let out a low whistle, glancing from Rory to everyone else in the room.

"They're going to regret that soon enough."

"Yeah, they are." Rory confirmed.

"You okay?" Jack asked softly while the others were talking. He had, undoubtedly, noticed that they were missing a half-human Time Lord. Rose gave him a shaky smile as his eyes studied her bandaged arm.

"It was acid," Rose replied in an easy tone that didn't quite manage to hide the pain, especially not from Jack who always caught everything. He pulled her into a one armed hug, tucking her into his side and Rose let out a breath of relief as the TARDIS shuddered and shook. "Me and you will head to the control room, the Doctor's goin' to make a bit of an entrance so we just have to wait until everyone's scramblin' and it should be easy goin' from there."

"Think you can keep up with me, Rosie-girl?" Jack asked with a wicked grin.

"I think the real question is," Rose produced the gun she had silently nicked off of him. "Can you keep up with me Captain?" His grin became completely uncivil.

* * *

><p>"So they are actually headless under their hoods? The headless monks are headless? I have no idea why I'm so shocked." Rose said in a low voice as she and Jack dodged down into a corner, taking cover. It was very convenient that the people of this base were having a mandatory assembly, made it easier to sneak about.<p>

"You're not the only one." Jack said, leaning around her to peer around the corner before giving a nod and they both carefully stepped down the hall then into another alcove. "About 150 years from now they'll be debunked and the whole universe finds out. They are controlled by a mainframe, like puppets. Makes them great soldiers. But that's not the worst of it." Jack continued as they made their way to the control room. Rose glanced around the corner, her gun at the ready but the way was clear.

"There's a worse part than beheading your own men to make them the 'perfect soldier'?" Rose ask, disgust dripping from her tone. Jack couldn't stop himself from grinning as he guarded their back while Rose made her way down the hall. Rose had thought it'd be easier to sneak around an army base if they had the same uniforms as the people milling about but the Doctor said they didn't have time. Funny, that, coming from him of all people.

"They kept the heads in boxes, alive." Jack nearly laughed at the horrified look Rose tossed at him.

"You've got to be kiddin' me." Rose shook her head and then peered around the hall. "There it is." They had a low level deception filter around them but the Doctor had told them that the soldiers had all been trained for him. They could recognize his companions and they knew most of his tricks. Chances are the deception filter wouldn't work on the guards outside the control room door, or whoever was inside the room.

"How good is your aim?" Jack asked. Rose smirked then stepped out from around the corner and shot both women, directly in the center of their chest. Both women collapsed instantly. Rose jogged lightly over to them, bending down and checking their pulses. Merely knocked out, Rose wasn't willing to resort to using anything but knock-out darts just yet.

"Ready?" Rose mouthed, grabbing hold of one of the women's hands and placing it near the electronic scanner outside the door. Jack nodded, gun aimed at the door and shoulders squared. Rose pressed the unconscious woman's hand to the scanner and the door swooshed open. Jack fired off two shoots quickly then helped Rose pull the women's prone bodies into the room.

"Now, where's the lights?" Jack mumbled as he looked over the control panels.

"12 seconds." Rose said after giving a glance at her watch. Well, the Doctor's watch really, he had never asked for it back and she found it coming in handy more often than not. Though there were more dials and hands than a regular watch had. "Lights, lights, lights." Rose mumbled, her fingers hovered over buttons and knobs and her eyes darted from spot to spot.

"Got it. Time?" Jack asked, hand poised and ready. Rose flipped her wrist over, counting the seconds before giving Jack the go. He flicked the switches and all the lights went out. "So how's this new Doctor?"

"Just as brilliant as the others." Rose answered. Both of them continued to familiarize themselves with the control panel. "Older, sadder, younger-looking."

"Do you think that's a Time Lord thing? They look younger with each regeneration? Careful Rose, one day people might believe you're travelling around with your son." Rose snorted as Jack grinned. "You alright?"

"Honestly? No, but there's no time for that right now, I've become very adept at compartmentalizing." Rose said proudly, flashing a grin at her friend. She gave Jack a nod and he flicked back on the lights.

"You're a lot like him," Jack unknowingly echoed the words spoken by her mum. Though Jack didn't say it with quite the amount of spite and bitterness her mother had mustered up. Rose didn't understand why people were so shocked, why her mum was so put off. How dare she grow up and not continually stay a naïve, selfish 19 year old girl?

"That's just life though, innit?" Rose asked, looking over the monitors. "You grow up, meet new people and they imprint themselves on you. You adapt little bits and pieces from each of them. No one is the same person they were a year ago let alone 7 or 10 or 20. People are always, constantly changing. I'm a bit like you, bit like my mum, got a little of my dad in there now, some parts Mickey, and Shireen, and even stupid Jimmy Stone. I only knew her for a short time but I've got a little Sarah Jane in me now, little bits and pieces from all the people I've known." Jack was watching her carefully.

"All to create wonderful Rose Tyler," Jack concluded with a grin. "What bits of me do you have in you?" Jack asked, eye brow raised and causing the tension to ease and allowing Rose to laugh.

"I'm a horrible flirt, I always was but I'm terrible now." Rose sighed dramatically.

"Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that at all." Rose watched as the soldiers discharged their weapon packs and she let out a soft sigh. She really did not want to watch a bunch of people murder themselves, even if they had kidnapped Amy and her child and wanted the Doctor dead.

"There is because I just keep fallin' back into my old routine with the Doctor, and I can't do that Jack. You haven't seen him with River Song, the two of them together. I can't do this, I can't." Rose shook her head, taking in a deep breath and holding it there.

"Rose, don't trust her." Jack said, unusually serious. Rose looked over at him. "I can't tell you why, you understand that but just- she's not- don't trust her. And definitely do not trust the Doctor to her." Jack turned back to the computer as Rose tossed Jack's words around in her head. She trusted Jack's assessment, especially since the former Time Agent always had the Doctor's best interest in heart. She saw that more clearly now than she had when she was younger. Jack was quite in love with the Doctor, in love with Rose also but it didn't necessarily mean the same thing to Jack as it did to Rose. The difference between a 51st century man and a 21st century woman. Jack was fluid, like water, he felt no need to label things or conform to any sort of 21st century mold. He didn't find it odd to be in love with the Doctor and Rose but still pursue a relationship with Ianto, a man he worked with.

But none of that mattered now. What mattered was Rose knew Jack would protect them both, her and the Doctor, with his life. If Jack said not to trust River Song than Rose could not trust River Song.

On the screen Silurian and Judoon appeared, surrounding the soldiers.

"She doesn't like me much," Rose offered up. Jack looked surprised. "She's in love with the Doctor completely; I think her entire existence revolves around him. I tried to make it obvious I had no intention of comin' in between them, but she still doesn't like me."

"Never met her, just heard about her, about what she's done but the fact that she doesn't like you?" Jack shook his head. "Just proves my point of not trustin' her." Rose couldn't help the grin. "Communications are down."

"You're a bit biased." Rose said, referring to his earlier comment. The base shook as it was shot at. Rose got picture of the baby on one of the monitors and pulled out her phone, texting directions to Rory, letting him avoid the scrambling soldiers.

"Hell yes I am, and you fight for your man- Time Lord- alien guy. That got away from me but you know what I mean."

"He's not mine." Jack scoffed.

"If you honestly think that's true then Rosie-girl, you haven't been paying enough attention. He's been in love with you before you were in love with him." Rose's eye brows shot up, a retort on the tip of her tongue but she held it back. Jack knew how people felt, it was a gift for him. Rose thought she had shared the same gift but maybe she was a bit blind when it came to the Doctor. "Space pirates have control of the evac ship."

"Strax has Colonel Manton." Rose confirmed, quickly sending off a message to the Doctor. "Everything's goin' exactly to plan." Rose and Jack shared a worried look.

"Hello you two!" The Doctor knocked on the door, causing a great deal of noise. Jack got up and let him in. The Doctor immediately grinned at Rose before going to work on the computer. "Lovely job, both of you!"

"Thank you." Rose grinned, giving a shallow bow before Strax walked in with the colonel.

"I'm sorry colonel, I lied. 3 minutes, 42 seconds." The Doctor pointed at the colonel with a boyish grin.

"Colonel Manton, you will give the order for your men to withdraw." Strax ordered before Jenny and Madame Vastra entered the room.

"No- Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away." The Doctor amended from his seated spot in front of the computer system.

"You what?" Manton asked, disbelief coloring his voice.

"Those words- run away." There was nothing boyish about the Doctor now. "I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door because they've found the house of Colonel Run Away," He was suddenly out of his chair, finger pointing accusingly at Manton. Rose's heart was thudding heavily in her chest, fear gripping her body in a tight grasp so she couldn't move. "And when people come to you and ask if trying to get me through the people I love is, in any way, a good idea I want you to tell them your name. Oh, look, I'm angry. That's new." The Doctor was smiling but there was no warmth in the gesture. "I'm really not sure what's going to happen now."

"The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules." The woman with the eye patch spoke up, flanked on both sides by Silurian warriors. The Doctor turned to her slowly, an even darker look crossing his features.

"Good men don't need rules." The Doctor stepped up to her, each movement precise and thought-out. Careful and controlled in a way Rose had never seen this regeneration act. "Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."

"Give the order." The eye patch woman commanded. The Doctor looked shocked but then satisfied. Jack and Rose exchanged another worried look. "Give the order, Colonel, run away."

"Come along Rose, off to secure the Ponds." The Doctor said, moving to go out the door.

"I think I'm goin' to stay here, thanks." Rose said, not looking at the Doctor, still trying to process what he had just said and why he had said it. She could feel the Doctor's eyes on her but after a moment she heard his footsteps, going away from her.

* * *

><p>About four hours later, after the base had been emptied of soldiers, they all gathered in the abandoned assembly room. Amy was trying to calm down her baby, little Melody Pond, who apparently did not much like the sound of the TARDIS. Both Rose and Jack had cooed at the little one, Jack making faces until Melody took hold of his nose.<p>

"Rory!" Jenny said, walking over to the couple with Strax following behind. "The Judoon have escorted the Clerics out of the quadrant. The spitfires have returned to their own time, Captain Avery and his men are- is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's just crying." Amy said, rocking the baby gently.

"Give her to me, human fools! She needs changing!" Strax snapped out. Rory took a protective step in front of his wife and his new baby.

"I just changed her. I-I think she might need a feed." Amy explained.

"A feed. Of course. I'll take care of everything." Jack and Rose exchanged a grin but they refused to laugh. They were adults after all.

"Uh, I really don't think you will, actually." Rory said, confronting Strax.

"I have gene-spliced myself for all nursing duties. I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic fluid!" Rose ducked her head behind Jack, letting out a small giggle that she tried to cover up with a cough. Well, mostly adults.

"She's not hungry, she's tired." The Doctor said, carrying out a crib from the TARDIS. "Sorry, Melody, they're just not listening."

"What's this, Melody?" Amy asked.

"Very pretty, according to your daughter." The Doctor said proudly.

"It's a- it's a cot." Rory spoke up.

"No flies on the Roman." The Doctor reached for Melody as Amy laughed. "Give her here, hey!" Amy passed over her baby to the Doctor.

"But where would you get a cot?" Rory asked.

"He's been a dad before." Rose whispered to Jack whose eye brows raised in question but Rose shrugged, that's all she really knew about that.

"It's old, really old." Amy said, looking over the cot. "Doctor, um, do you have children?"

"No." The Doctor answered, looking suddenly very sad.

"Have you ever had children?"

"No, no, it's real. It's my hair." The Doctor said, to Melody which Rose found odd but not as odd as she would have. Of course the Doctor could speak to babies, she wondered what her baby-self had said to her leather-clad Doctor.

"Who slept in here?" Amy tried again.

"Doctor, we need you in the main control room." Madame Vastra called out from the intercom system.

"Be right there! Things to do. I've still got to work out what the base is for. We can't leave till we know." The Doctor turned and started to walk away.

"Uh, but this is where I was? The whole time I thought I was on the TARDIS, I was really here?" Amy questioned him.

"Uh- centurion, permission to hug?" The Doctor asked Rory.

"Be aware, I do have a sword." Rory warned. The Doctor nodded and stepped forward, embracing Amy.

"Maybe we can be of use in the control room?" Jack asked, probably feeling as Rose did. Like an intruder on a private, family meeting. Rose nodded and followed him out of the room and down the corridors. "Rose, he's over 900 years old, last of his kind, you have to cut him some slack."

"What?" Rose asked in a distracted tone.

"You keep expecting him to be this man above everyone, like he can do no wrong. Except he makes mistakes, and in 900 years those mistakes add up. The Doctor's brilliant and fantastic and wonderful, yes. He rather save people than blow them up, much rather see people live than die but he's also seen the worst of things and that sits heavily on someone's soul. There's good and bad in him and you can't just accept the good." Jack explained.

"When did you get so wise?" Rose quipped, causing Jack to grin.

"Well, this little girl made me invincible, lot of time to get wise when you can't actually die."

"Jack, I'm so sorry about that." Rose said earnestly, losing her grin all together.

"I'm not, not really. I get you see you and the Doctor every once and a while, got a good job, actual friends too. And you should see Ianto, his-" Rose covered her eyes as Jack laughed and they strolled into the control room. "But really Rosie, you gave me the benefit of the doubt when I was nothing but a conman looking out for himself, you should try doing the same for the Doctor."

"You've hacked into their software, then?" The Doctor asked, strolling into the control room after Rose and Jack had been there for a while.

"I believe I sold it to them." Dorium confirmed.

"Oh! So what have we learned?"

"That anger is always the shortest distance to a mistake." Madame Vastra spoke up.

"I'm sorry?"

"The words of an old friend who once found me in the London Underground, attempting to avenge my sisters on perfectly innocent tunnel-diggers."

"Well, you were very cross at the time."

"As you were today, old friend. Point taken, I hope." Madame Vastra finished as the Doctor turned away from her. "Now, I have a question, a simple one. Is Melody human?"

"Sorry, what?" The Doctor asked. "Of course she is. Completely human. What are you talking about?"

"They've been scanning her since she was born, and I think they found what they were looking for." Dorium explained from his spot in front of the computers.

"Human DNA."

"Look closer, human plus." Madame Vastra said from behind them. "Specifically, human plus Time Lord."

"I'm sorry, what?" Rose finally spoke up, eye brows raised. The Doctor glanced at her then did a double take.

"What? No, no, not me." The Doctor said, looking completely offended at Rose.

"You are the last Time Lord," Rose reminded.

"No, she's human, she's Amy and Rory's daughter."

"You've told me about your people. They became what they did through prolonged exposure to the time vortex, the untempered schism." Madame Vastra explained.

"Over billions of years. It didn't just happen." The Doctor started to pace.

"So how close is she? Could she even regenerate?"

"No, no. I don't think so."

"You don't sound so sure."

"Because I don't understand how this happened." The Doctor admitted.

"Which leads me to ask when did it happen?"

"When?"

"I am trying to be delicate. I know how you can blush." Jack gave a scoff at this. "When did this baby begin?"

"Oh you mean-" The Doctor stood up straighter, looking completely uncomfortable. Madame Vastra nodded. "Well, how would I know? That's all humany private stuff, it just sort of goes on." The Doctor shot Rose a look while nervously fidgeting with his bow-tie. "They don't put up a balloon, or anything." He began to walk away.

"But could the child have begun on the TARDIS, in flight, in the vortex?" The Doctor turned back, looking disgruntled to have to continue this conversation.

"No, no! Impossible! It's all running about, sexy fish vampires, and blowing stuff up. And Rory wasn't even there at the beginning. Then he was dead, then he didn't exist, then he was plastic, then I had to reboot the whole universe- long story, sorry Rose, so sorry. So, technically, the first time they were on the TARDIS together, in this version of reality, was on their w-" But he cut himself off.

"On their what?"

"On their wedding night." The Doctor walked back and started up his pacing again. "It doesn't make sense, you can't just cook yourself a Time Lord!"

"Of course not. But you gave them one hell of a start. And they've been working very hard ever since."

"I'm sorry but why?" Rose spoke up, catching the attention of everyone. "Why make a child be a Time Lord? Are they tryin' to restart your civilization or something? Why use an army then? Doesn't make sense."

"They gave in so easily. Does this not bother anyone else?" Dorium added. Rose and Jack both raised their hands in agreement with the big blue man.

"Amy- she worried the baby would have a timehead. She said that- that- that-" The Doctor hit his head, trying to remember.

"Only you would ignore the instincts of a mother." Madame Vastra admonished.

"Or the instincts of a coward. This is too easy. There's something wrong." Dorium tried again.

"He's right," Jack finally added.

"Why even do it? Like Rose was saying. Even if you could get your hands on a brand-new Time Lord, what for?" The Doctor asked.

"A weapon?" Madame Vastra asked.

"Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?" Rose asked before the Doctor could respond.

"My dear girl," Madame Vastra said, looking around. "Well, they've seen him." She motioned to the Doctor.

"Me?" The Doctor asked.

"Him?" Rose questioned, a bad feeling swirling around in her gut.

"Mr. Maldovar, you're right this was too easy. We should get back to the others." Madame Vastra advised but the Doctor slowly sat down, looking forlorn. Madame Vastra and Dorium left and after a moment of silent arguing Jack left too, giving a pointed look over to the Doctor. Rose stepped closer to him but the computers changed before she could say anything.

"I see you accessed our files. Do you understand yet?" It was the woman with the eye patch. "Oh, don't worry. I'm a long way away, but I like to keep tabs on you. The child, then. What do you think?"

"What is she?" The Doctor asked, standing up and facing the screen. Rose slid her hand into his, lacing her fingers with his.

"Hope. Hope in this endless, bitter war."

"What war? Against who?"

"Against you, Doctor."

"The child, is not a weapon!" The Doctor screamed angrily.

"Oh, give us time. She can be. She will be."

"Except you've already lost her, and, I swear, I will never let you anywhere near her again." The Doctor promised but Rose felt dread stirring.

"Oh, Doctor." Rose closed her eyes at what she felt was coming, felt something unfurl in the back of her mind as she thought of sweet, little, innocent Melody Pond. "Fooling you once was a joy, but fooling you twice the same way, it's a privilege."

"Amy. Amy." The Doctor dropped Rose's hand and began running. Rose opened her eyes and stared up at the screen.

"There was a bit of hope for you before, but not now. Not even I can help you, not that I have any inclination to do so." Rose said, her voice deceptively soft but there was something in it. The Other stretched inside her mind but Rose wasn't frightened. No, she wasn't frightened, not the way they should be.

"Silly little girl, what is the Doctor going to do?" The woman asked. "We know all about you, Rose Tyler, you are nothing without him. Just a nobody from the wrong side of the town shown things she couldn't possibly understand." Rose tilted her head to the side in a strangely wolf like gesture. Something flashed in the woman's eyes but it was gone before Rose could recognize it, not that it mattered much.

"You should really consider running now." Her voice was laced with the Other and Rose finally knew what had flashed in the other woman's eye. Fear. Good, she should fear her. Rose turned and left without another word.

Rose ran down the corridors, she could hear gun fire and the Doctor shouting. She came upon him banging on a door, using his sonic but to no avail. Rose shoved him aside, pulling a knife from her boot that she had stored there when she was told they were sneaking on an army asteroid. She used the knife to pry the control panel off of the wall then started to pull out wires.

"They are prepared for you, Doctor, your sonic won't work here." Rose explained, her fingers nimbly working through the wires as the gunshots from the blocked room continued. Rose took that as a good sign, as long as the gunshots continued it meant there was a chance their friends were still alive, still fighting. She finally found the wire she needed and she cut through it. The door slid open and the Doctor was first through it.

"Amy!" The Doctor shouted, frantic. Rose walked through the door and noticed that it was silent except for some sparks here and there.

"Yeah, we know." Rory said, his voice devoid of all emotion. Standing like it was a physical pain. Strax was moaning and Rory went to his side. Strax let out a final wheeze and then he was gone.

Rose stepped forward, looking for Jack. Jenny was comforting Amy, who looked completely defeated. It was an emotion that Rose had never associated with the upbeat, sarcastic, firery Scottish woman. The bodies of the Headless Monks were scattered across the floor. The Doctor slowly approached Amy, head down, fingers wringing together.

"So they took her, anyway. All this was for nothing." Amy said softly.

"I am so sorry." The Doctor tried to hug Amy but she pulled back, looked at him with accusation in her eyes.

"Amy, it's not his fault." Jenny spoke up. Rose finally managed to find Jack and she knelt next to his body, taking hold of his hand and waiting for him to wake up. There was a sword wound through his chest, it had slashed right through his heart.

"I know. I know." Amy said but she couldn't look at the Doctor, she stepped away and her sobbing was the only noise that could be heard for a moment.

"Doctor, there's someone who wants to speak to you." Madame Vastra was a couple meters away, by the cot. "Her name is Lorna. She came to warn us." The Doctor walked away, pulling out his sonic as he went.

Jack sat up with a gasp, his hand tightening on Rose's in a near bone-crushing grip but he let up after a second and bent forward, sucking in great gulps of air. He fingered the bloodied hole in his shirt and let out a small sigh before looking around.

"Strax didn't make it." Rose spoke softly. "And a girl named Lorna." Rose added, sure that the reason Madame Vastra had gone for the Doctor was because she was beyond help. "The baby was Flesh." Rose said, even softer. Jack bowed his head, his grip tight within her own.

"You're giving up? You never do that!" Madame Vastra's raised voice brought everyone's attention to her and the Doctor. Jack pushed to his feet, pulling Rose up with him.

"Yeah, and don't you sometimes wish I did?" The Doctor snapped, angry.

Something that sounded like thunder crashed within the large room and the lights flickered on and off.

"Well, then, soldier, how goes the day?" River Song was standing in the middle of the room, smiling. Jack looked down at Rose, who nodded a confirmation. Yes, that was most definitely the River Song Jack had warned her about.

"Where the hell have you been? Every time you've asked, I have been there." The Doctor was taking long, angry strides towards River, his face a twist of dark emotions. "Where the hell were you today?"

"I couldn't have prevented this." River said, shaking her head.

"You could've tried!" The Doctor snapped back.

"She couldn't have done anything differently, Doctor, and takin' your anger out on her won't change anything." Rose spoke up. The Doctor turned his angry stare towards her but Rose just stood up straighter, her own eyes narrowing.

"Don't defend me." River told her. Jack made a move for his gun but Rose smacked his hand away, giving him a reproachful look. "And so, my love, could have you tried." River went back to talking to the Doctor even as he turned away from her. "I know you're not alright, but hold tight, Amy, because you're going to be."

"You think I wanted this?" The Doctor asked, pointing at the cot, at Amy and Rory, at the whole situation. "I didn't do this. This- this wasn't me!"

"This was exactly you. All this, all of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor the word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?" River walked around the Doctor, who's eyes were wet and his head was down, not meeting anyone's eyes. "To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon, just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you."

"Enough!" Rose yelled, her voice louder than she meant it. Something wrapped around it and she tried to swallow it down, push it back before it was revealed to everyone how human she was not anymore but she was so angry, so tired and sad and she wasn't about to stand around and let them take all of this out on the Doctor.

"You have no place here," River spoke to Rose without actually looking at her. The Other pushed something into her mind but Rose shoved it away. She needed to fight with her own words this time.

"They are the ones who took a child, they are the ones in the wrong here, not the Doctor and I won't hear another word out of your mouth about it." Rose stepped forward, in front of the Doctor, using her body as a kind of shield as she glared at River. "I would be dead if not for the Doctor, 19 years old in a shop basement and dead. The Doctor goes into the worst situations and he tries to help and no, it doesn't always work out, but he does what he can and he does what no one else is willin' to do."

"He made you into a soldier." River stated but Rose was shaking her head.

"I made myself into a soldier, that had nothin' to do with the Doctor. I could have worked with computers or just been an ambassador, or hell- I could have gone back to bein' a bloody shop girl but I choose to go through the trainin' to become a Torchwood agent so I could better keep safe those I love." Rose said firmly. Jack was beaming away behind River. "This doesn't mean I agree with everything the Doctor does but this? This right here is not his fault." Strong hands came down on her shoulders, pulling her back slightly as the Doctor rested his forehead on the top of her head.

"Thank you Rose," The Doctor spoke softly and then he straightened up, moving her gently so he was in front of River. "Who are you?" There was sadness on Rivers face as she glanced between Rose and the Doctor but then her eyes met the Doctor's.

"Oh look, your cot haven't seen that in a very long while." River said, wiping the sadness off of her face as she walked backwards to the cot.

"No, no, you tell me. You tell me who you are."

"I am telling you." River took a hold of the Doctors hand and put it on the cot. "Can't you read?" The Doctor looked at the cot then slowly looked up at River, a smile spreading across his face.

"Hello."

"Hello."

"But- but that means-"

"I'm afraid it does."

"Oh, but you and I," The Doctor glanced over at Amy and Rory. He began to stutter then, a new thing Rose had never heard him do. He kept glancing between Amy and Rory and River. Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "How do I look?" Even with her eyes closed Rose knew that the Doctor was fixing his bow-tie.

"Amazing." River answered.

"I'd better be."

"Yes, you'd better me."

"Vastra and Jenny, till the next time. Rory and Amy, I know where to find your daughter, and, on my life, she will be safe. Jack, I know you've fixed that blasted vortex manipulator, look after Rose, you two try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone. River, get the rest home." Rose's eyes were still closed when she felt the brush of a hand against her cheek.

"Doctor." Rory called out. Rose opened her eyes and watched the Doctor walk away.

"No! Where are you going? No!" Amy chased after him but he was already in the TARDIS, already dematerializing.

"Rose?" Jack asked softly, coming to stand beside her as she watched the spot where the TARDIS had been.

"I'll explain later, can we just get out of here? Please? Please Jack?" Rose hated the way her voice cracked, hated the way it betrayed her but Jack just pushed up his sleeve and opened the vortex manipulator. He then hugged Rose close and pushed a button.

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it is extremely encouraging! And I hope you liked this new chapter with a little bit of Captain Jack Harkness thrown in!**


	10. Chapter 10

It had been two weeks since Rose had seen the Doctor on Demon's Run. She lived at Torchwood with Jack, and helped out where she could. She found she quite liked everyone there, even that ponce Owen. Rose had explained about Melody being River, well explained it as best she could. Jack understood about the intricate details of the flow of time, better than Rose, and he didn't push her too much for information.

Though a week into her stay, Jack had taken her to a bar on one of Jupiter's moons about a thousand years into the future. Europa or Callisto, Rose didn't really remember much from that night. Moonies made one hell of a drink and Rose had drank her body weight. It was the first time she had gotten truly pissed since she was younger, and the hang over the next day reminded her why she stopped drinking in the first place. It had been cathartic though, at least the bits she remembered. She told Jack all about what happened with her half-human Doctor then everything that had happened since she was pulled back into this dimension. She also had fuzzy memories of trying to prove she was just as good a gymnast now than when she was younger. She didn't want to think about that too hard considering she woke up with a huge bruise on her back.

Rose had drawn the short straw, literally, and had to go out and get dinner for everyone. She had just finished working out with Jack beforehand and hadn't bothered to change out of her work out sweats and tank top, though she had thrown on a zip up because Cardiff was frigid. She should have grabbed a coat too, now that she had cooled down from the rigorous work out she was a bit chilled.

Working out with Jack Harkness was fun, when you weren't laying flat on your back in pain. He jumped around the work out room, one moment doing weights the next they were fighting and after that lunges. Rose was utterly sore the first time they did it but she was getting use to it now, her body quickly adapting. Doing such a work out made her feel less guilty about all the pasta she was about to consume, it would equal the size of a large dog if she could help it.

"Oof! Oh I'm so sorry!" Rose apologized. She had just been making sure the order was correct, peering into the bag instead of watching where she walked when she slammed right into a body.

"That's alri- Rose?" Rose looked up into a set of brown eyes and she felt her mouth go dry. She attempted to speak, once, twice, and then a third time but nothing came out. "Rose Tyler what are you doing in Cardiff? I specifically dropped you off at your mums and popped off to refill the TARDIS. But what is- your hair is different! Oh no, this is not good, not good at all, you appear to be several years older. 25- no, 26. What are you doing in Cardiff?"

"You dropped me off at my mums so I wouldn't see Jack!" Rose accused, finally finding her voice and feeling indignant at the answer. "Well your master plan didn't work, I'm actually goin' to have dinner with Jack right now." Rose held up her multiple bags before walking off. The Doctor was at her side in an instant.

"You're having dinner with Jack Harkness?" The Doctor asked, his trench coat billowing behind him.

"Yep," Rose purposely popped the 'p'. "Livin' with him too." She knew exactly how that sounded. Rose knew she shouldn't be talking to this Doctor, she could end up ruining a lot and she didn't want to muck about in her own past. Once was enough for her, thank you. But she couldn't seem to stop herself from teasing him. With his wide expressive eyes and all that hair that stuck straight up, she had missed him. She thought it would kill her to see this version again but it was like putting ointment on a burn. It had stung at first but what was left was a relaxing feeling, like she could finally breath right again.

"You're living with Jack Harkness?!" The Doctor sputtered and Rose couldn't hide her grin in time, he saw it before she could turn her face. He walked faster then spun around so he was walking backwards, facing her, a large grin splitting his face. "You're messing with me."

"No, you swanned off and left me, _again_." Rose couldn't be all that mad, though she did try. She never had it in her to stay angry at anyone very long, least of all the Doctor. "Jack's lettin' me crash at his until _himself_ deems it appropriate to show up."

"Oh, you sound just like your mother."

"Watch it you!" Rose kicked him, getting a good one to his thigh. He hobbled for a second then dropped back to her side, not really hurt at all judging by the grin on his face.

"I didn't really leave you, did I?" The Doctor asked, his hands buried deep within those endless suit jacket pockets. Rose stopped and faced him, they were just in front of Torchwood now. The Doctor's manic grin that he wore since he realized who she was, was gone now.

"I understood, not happy about it but you had to take care of something- something important." Rose shrugged but she couldn't quite meet his eyes. The bags of Italian food were lifted out of her hands and put onto a bench next to them. Then Rose was pulled into a tight, all-consuming hug. Rose had nearly forgotten how this Doctor hugged, she didn't think there was a difference but there was. The Doctor with floppy hair and green eyes hugged her with near desperation but this Doctor, his hug was long and warm with a little lift at the end that had her laughing.

The Doctor set her on her feet and grinned down at her. Rose hadn't even realized how badly she had needed that but the Doctor had, five seconds with her and he had seen that. Rose hadn't realized how readable she had been but it was the Doctor and she was Rose Tyler so it didn't seem to matter.

"I've gone and regenerated again, haven't I?" The Doctor asked and Rose's eyes widened. The Doctor's own brown eyes went slightly wider before he tossed himself back dramatically, tossing his arms out in a theatrical way Rose had missed. "I was just guessing but I can't believe it! I'm going through them like jelly babies! How do I go? Is it bad? Are you there at least?" The Doctor is pulling a hand through his hair, making it stick up like a hedgehog. Rose tried hard not to grin, she really, truly did. It's a very serious situation, the Doctor knowing he will regenerate soon, but she misses this. She misses him and she can't help the laugh that bubbles out.

"How'd you know?" Rose asks instead of even attempting to try and play it off or answer any of his questions.

"It's written all over your face, Rose Tyler." He steps forward and points at her face. Rose knocks his hand away and he twists it so his hand is cupping hers. "Your frontalis and orbicularis oculi muscles pull together, you're studying my face." The Doctor uses his free hand to point out the muscles and Rose knocks that hand away too but he grabs on. They grin at each other, hands swinging between them. They start laughing at the same time.

"Oi, how come you never told me you met a future version of me?" The Doctor lets go of one of her hands to rub the back of his neck.

"Time Lords developed a way to lock away certain memories, that way if we meet another version of ourselves we can put the memory behind a locked door with a trigger that will release that memory when we reach a certain point in our lives that the memory won't cause trouble to our own personal timeline." The Doctor explained in a rapid way but Rose is quite proud of herself for keeping up. "But I can't believe I just left you here, bit rude isn't it?"

"Doctor, if you're here, then where am I?" Rose asked, eye brows raised and a grin touching her lips. The Doctor sputtered for a moment when he realized his error.

"Well, that's quite different now isn't it? I didn't even touch the time rotor! I just dropped you off for a spot of tea with your mum and I'll be back later tonight to pick you up and off we pop!" The Doctor exclaimed happily. Rose couldn't help but laugh.

"Doctor, it's 2011."

"No!" The Doctor said in disbelief but he pulled out his sonic, his smaller blue sonic and Rose couldn't help but grin at the sight of it. "How'd that even happen? I didn't touch the time rotor, should be 2006, not 2011." He ran a hand through his hair, before pulling on the lobe of his ear. The Doctor's brown eyes glance at her, twirling the sonic screw driver in his fingers and Rose put a hand on his, pointing it away from her.

"Don't even think about it." Rose warned but she's grinning, tongue in teeth.

"I don't know what you think I was doing but I certainly would never try and get a look into my own future, Rose Tyler, that would be highly dangerous and irresponsible and frankly I'm a little insulted that you would ever assume I'd do such a thing." The Doctor rolled her name on his tongue, familiar and yet old at the same time. And Rose finds herself laughing, feelings of despair dissipating until she felt lighter.

Rose hugged the Doctor again, he lifted her off her feet, both of them laughing as he placed her back on the ground.

"You should get back to me," Rose forced the words out. The Doctor looked surprised, if only for half a second. Like he hadn't even thought of leaving her behind. Two Rose's in the TARDIS, she thought that may create some sort of paradox that not even the TARDIS could contain but that hadn't been the Doctor's first thought. His thought only revolved around never leaving her behind, and that warmed Rose to the core even if the new regeneration didn't seem to have the same thought process. "Mum's probably drivin' me barmy by now." The Doctor laughed.

"Ready for a new adventure then?" The Doctor asked as Rose grinned, even as she committed his face to her memory. The freckles that made up his face, the crookedness of his nose, the thin lips that stretched out into a goofy grin aimed only at her, and that gorgeous head of hair.

"Past ready." Rose admitted. A strong emotion flickered over the Doctor's face but he was wrapping his arms around her before she could figure out what it was. "You'll remember this later, yeah?" Rose asked into the softness of his cotton shirt. It was one of the few times he wasn't wearing a tie. Her younger self had hidden them in retaliation to a particularly snide comment he had said, though this present Rose couldn't remember the exact words he had said. She did remember him coming to the console room, the top buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, revealing the blue under shirt and the pale, freckled skin there. He was miffed, thinking the TARDIS had hidden his collection of ties and Rose had never told him otherwise.

"I'll always come back for you Rose," The Doctor promised. His words made her heart squeeze painfully but she forced a smile to her lips when he pulled back. She gave a quick peck to his forehead and before she could do something stupid, like beg to be brought along with him, she grabbed the food off the bench and walked towards the Torchwood building.

Rose told herself not to look back but she couldn't stop herself. This could possibly be the last time she saw her trench-coat wearing Doctor and she just wanted one last look.

Rose turned, pushing some fallen strands of hair behind her ear as she balanced the bagged food in her other hand. The Doctor was watching her, brows furrowed in concentration but when he realized he had her attention his face broke out into a lovely grin. His hand came out of his trouser pocket and he gave her a little finger wave. Rose returned the look, tongue caught between her teeth as she returned the finger wave.

"Really?" Rose asked as she walked into the building that sat on top of Torchwood. "For a bunch of agents from a secret government organization, you are all horrible spies." They had clearly been watching the Doctor and hers exchange on the monitor. The only one who looked a bit sheepish was Ianto, and he was the only one with a real cause to be watching the monitors in the first place, which meant as soon as she had appeared with the Doctor he had called the rest of the team.

"I saw the readings for his ship, and I believed you would be leaving with him." Ianto explained quickly at her look. "I wanted to gather everyone together to give you a proper send off."

"And to watch Owen cry," Gwen piped up, earning an 'oi!' and a couple swears from the man. "He's gained a soft spot for you." Gwen continued on without giving a look to Owen.

"Shove it," Owen grumbled as he snatched the bags out of Rose's hands. "I only wanted to make sure she gave us the food before she popped off."

"He is really good looking," Gwen continued to ignore Owen.

"Not _that_ good looking."

"What monitor were you watching?" Tosh asked softly.

"If anyone cares, I'm going to go eat now." Owen sniffs, snatching the bags out of Rose's arms before storming off down the hall as everyone said, 'no one cares' in union, as if they had choreographed it.

"Best go make sure he doesn't spit in all our food out of spite," Gwen says with a grin before walking off with Tosh and Ianto. Jack leant a hip against the front desk and peered at Rose in a knowing way that makes Rose want to squirm, but she resisted, if barely.

"You okay?" Jack asked, unusually serious.

"Yeah," Rose said softly then laughed at the other mans disbelieving look. "No really Jack, I am. I thought- I thought maybe it'd be hard, seein' him- at least that him, again. But it was nice Jack, comfortin'." She felt awkward, she could feel the burn in her cheeks and the way her heart rate picked up at the mere mention of her trench-coat wearing Doctor. "I miss 'im the same way I miss the one with blue eyes, and the one with only one heart. I even miss the one who left me, again, bloody git that he is."

"Rose," Jack started, but Rose shook her head.

"No, it's fine, I understand." Rose took a deep breath, holding it within her lungs for a moment before letting it out along with the anger that had been building up inside of her since she had watched the TARDIS dematerialize, leaving her behind, _again_. "I always understand Jack. He sent me home, that first time with the daleks, because while he knew he'd die, he found comfort in knowin' that I was still out there, alive and livin'. And he sent me away because he didn't want me to see him push that lever, didn't want me to see him at his worse, and I understand that now more than ever. I understood when he left me on that bloody beach in Norway, the first and second time. I know why he pushes me away, again and again. He's over 900 years, and he's had to watch people, over and over, die while he still has to go on, because that's who he is. The Doctor will never just give up, he'll always continue on, no matter what, but he has to live while the rest of us- while we wither up and die, and that's only if we live long enough to die of old age."

"Just because you understand, Rosie-girl, doesn't make it hurt any less." Jack said knowingly, and Rose found herself unbelievably grateful towards Jack. Grateful to have a person who comprehended, who knew, and didn't ever judge her for her weaknesses.

"I could have gone with him," Rose admitted, slightly ashamed when her voice broke on the last word. Jack made a comforting noise in his throat before pulling Rose into a hug.

"I'm going to have a talk with him."

"Jack," Rose admonished but didn't get out another word as he hugged her tightly to him.

"No Rose, I will talk to him, it's a long overdue talk anyways." Jack rested his chin on top of Rose's head as he continued speaking. "Your mum isn't around to give him a good smack when he's being particularly obtuse, and he really is being an ass."

"He really is." Rose agreed sulkily before Jack pushed her away gently, grinning down at her with a look that made Rose want to run away, but he's got his hands on her shoulders and she knows she isn't going anywhere.

"I think it's time for another trip to Europa," Jack laughs at Rose's groan.

"No way Jack, those alien drinks are too much for my weak, frail, human body to deal with." But Jack is already pulling Rose to his side, already punching in the coordinates on his Time Vortex Manipulator.

* * *

><p>Jack and Rose stumbled back to Torchwood Three, Cardiff, two days later. Jack had, somehow though not really surprisingly, lost his shirt, and has a pocket overflowing with knickers and pants from a host of alien and human partners. Rose had lost her own clothes in a card game that she thought was poker, but definitely was not, hence her losing everything, but she traded her little silver heart ring for some silver, futuristic-looking clothes that seemed to be all the rage in 3022. Rose was told it was inspired from late 20th century sci-fi movies. Her hair was shoulder length now, though she didn't remember getting it cut.<p>

"Oh, thank god you're back." Ianto rushed out, managing to look both relieved at the sight of Rose, and annoyed at the sight of Jack.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, popping a little orange pill into his mouth that was either candy or those brilliant hang over pills, Rose wasn't really quite sure.

"You're- erm- ride is here." Ianto said, pointedly ignoring Jack and staring at Rose. Rose told Jack that he should have, at the very least, left a note.

"My ride?" Rose asked, pushing the horned rimmed glasses up into her hair, and when exactly had she put on glasses?

"Your boyfriend?" Ianto tried again, looking vastly uncomfortable. "He got here moments after you left-"Pointed look at Jack. "And he's been- prowling around in Torchwood ever since. He doesn't look like the one we- ah, _saw_ you talking to a couple days ago, is the Doctor just a title on his planet?" Rose hadn't realized that the Torchwood crew hadn't been briefed on the Doctor's regenerations, she didn't really blame Jack for that, it was a difficult subject to broach or understand fully. Plus Jack, despite his anger towards this particular body of the Doctor's, was still extremely loyal, and he wouldn't go around telling everyone the Doctor's secrets. But Ianto seemed to understand that he was an alien, so at least she didn't have to explain that.

"You let him into Torchwood?" Rose asked, completely surprised. Ianto gave her a hard look.

"Of course not, he let himself into the building. Gwen locked him up, five different times with varying degrees of locks and handcuffs, but he got himself out of them each and every time. He hasn't been that destructive, and we've managed to keep him away from the vault-" which housed alien technology Jack Harkness deemed dangerous, and therefore was a very good reason to keep the Doctor away from that. "Mostly he just yells a lot, especially at Owen, which is understandable." That was the most Rose had ever heard Ianto speak.

"I'm sorry Ianto," There wasn't much more Rose could say. The Doctor didn't operate by human standards. He probably fully believed he had every right to storm into this building and do what he pleased, barmy alien git that he was, but despite her anger and her hurt, she was still pleased that not only had he shown up, but he had waited around for two days for her. The only reason they were back two days later was because Jack had slept with the wrong aliens life mate and they were forced to make a quick getaway. Rose briefly wondered how long the Doctor would have waited for her.

Rose, followed closely behind by Jack, walked down the hall and then took the lift down to the sub-basement level that was the real Torchwood. It wasn't hard to find the Doctor after that, just follow the noise of his incessant gob.

The Doctor was sitting in a chair, legs and arms crossed in a manner that Rose could identify as his angrily defensive pose, a forced casualness that could not hide the edge in his posture and voice. Rose wanted to be angry, she really did, but her heart gave a leap of joy at the sight of him. Betraying little organ, it was.

"Leave Tosh alone Doctor, I'm sure she knows what she's doin' better than you." Rose yelled out from across the large room as she slowly made her way over to him. The Doctor lost his defensive posture right quick at the sound of her voice and he popped up to his feet, nearly knocking over the chair in his haste. A brilliant smile lit his face before a deep scowl overtook his features.

"And just where the hell have you been? I've been waiting around for two days for you, Rose Marion Tyler!" The Doctor yelled, making Rose stop just short of him.

"What?" Rose asked.

"I said I've been waiting around-"

"I bloody well know what you just said, you big soddin' git! Two days, you've been waitin' two days? Oh, well, I'm so sorry for makin' you wait around for two days! Actually, I'm sorry for abandonin' you, once again, to pop off without an explanation, and then leavin' you for over two bloody weeks! Oh wait, that wasn't me, that was you!" Rose was near shouting by the end of her rant.

"I went back to that base only moments after I left to pick you up, but you had already left with Mr. Fancy Pants!" The Doctor yelled back.

"Mr. Fancy Pants?" Jack asked, sounding amused, which earned him a dark look from an angry blonde and an even angrier Time Lord.

"How the hell was I s'pose to know you were comin' right back? You didn't say anything!" Rose yelled louder to try and cover up the fact that her voice was wavering, that her eyes were getting suspiciously wet, that her heart physically hurt. The Doctor looked ready to continue yelling back, but a shared look between him and Jack made his face soften, if only slightly.

"I couldn't let you come, not where I needed to go." The Doctor admitted softly.

"And why not?" Rose asked, keeping her anger close, because otherwise she was afraid she might fall apart, right there and then in front of everyone.

"Because I needed to find River, and not the child-version of her either. I know you would have tried and talked me out of it, but I was in a delicate circular paradox that needed to play itself out perfectly, otherwise a hole in the universe would have formed, and I've just patched up all the cracks through time and space, and I didn't fancy doing it again." The Doctor explained in a way that didn't really clarify anything.

"So you had to find the adult-version of her, because it was already too late to save her when she was a child." Rose worked out by herself, though she didn't really like that answer, but she decided to drop that for now. Rose wasn't even quite sure what a circular paradox was, but she knew paradoxes weren't good, and the Doctor understood those better than she, so she left them to him. "Why couldn't I help with that?"

"Because she had been raised to kill me, Rose. Rory and Amy were safe, because they were her parents, and even in her warped mind she wouldn't have hurt them- couldn't have hurt them. But she could have hurt you Rose, could and would have." The Doctor's voice dropped an octave, sounding quite dangerous. "Amy's my best mate, and her daughter was taken away to be made into a weapon to kill me. I needed to help her, and if she had hurt you I'm not quite sure I could have."

Rose Tyler was never one to hold a grudge. Yes, she could work up quite an angry tirade when she wanted to, she was her mother's daughter after all, but none of the Tyler's had it in them to hold onto that anger. It was exhausting, holding that anger close to her heart, and she had seen how doing that had made other people so very bitter. Rose Tyler was many things, but she would never allow herself to grow bitter. She was too strong for that. But damn, if she didn't want to work up a good anger towards the Doctor for abandoning her _again_, but how was she supposed to yell at him when he said things like that?

It was like whenever her first Doctor had called her a stupid ape, or mocked her, or did any number of things that should have made her, in the very least, give him a good slap. Then she would remember the things he would say the way that she made him vulnerable.

"_I could save the world, but lose you."_

"Bloody stupid alien!" Rose shouted, feeling all of 15 years old again. The Doctor lost his anger, lost the edge in his eyes as he stared at her in shock. "What am I s'pose to say to that?"

"Well what would you like me to do then?" The Doctor asked, his anger returning to cover up the growing softness inside of him.

"Stop leavin' me behind!" Rose yelled, giving him a good shove, but the Doctor merely rocked on his feet, like she had been a particularly strong wind. It fueled her anger. "Or at least stop for five seconds to explain why you feel the need to go do something by yourself." She tried to reason, she really did. She didn't want to seem like a petty 15 year old, shouting for no reason, especially since they had gained quite the audience.

"You wouldn't listen, you never listen!" The Doctor yelled back.

"Of course I don't because you're a strappin', big, alien idiot!" Rose tried to keep her glare, she really did, but she heard her own words echoed in the eerily quiet cave-like room of Torchwood and her face cracked. The look of disbelief on the Doctor's didn't help her keep her composure. "I'm not 19 anymore Doctor, I'm not just goin' to stand back and do what you tell me to do."

"Oh like you ever did that in the first place. First place I took you, do you remember that? Don't wander off, that was my only bloody rule, don't wander off Rose Tyler, time and space are a dangerous place to go swannin' off in, and do you listen? No, off you pop the first chance you get." The Doctor ranted, hands flailing about.

"I nearly was roasted alive!"

"In the theatre in Cardiff, people running around, screaming, danger everywhere, and what's the first thing you do?"

"I thought they were kidnappin' a woman, and you were too busy bein' Charlies number one fan to be of much use."

"10 Downing Street!"

"I was helpin' Harriet Jones!"

"Adam Mitchell." The Doctor nearly growled out the name.

"Oh here we go again," Rose rolled her eyes. "For the last time, I didn't know he was a ponce when I invited him along, he just wanted to go see the stars!"

"Sure it had nothing to do with his pretty boy face?"

"Yes, exactly, glad you've figured me out! I go around invitin' pretty little things into my spaceship to travel throughout all of time and space- oh wait, that's not me. But who do we know who does that?"

"Jack Harkness-"

"Captain Jack Harkness, and he saved me when you were off doin' god knows what-"

"Mickey Smith!"

"You were the one who invited Mickey along!" Rose was moving now, walking away from him in a huff of anger. A part of her, a small part she would never admit to having, preened in satisfaction when she heard the Doctor's booted footsteps follow behind her.

"And just where do you think you're going?" The Doctor asked from behind her.

"To my room."

"You have a room here?" The Doctor sounded, if Rose wasn't mistaken, a bit hurt.

"Well, it's technically Jack's room, but he let me crash in it. And of course I have a room, it's been over two weeks, did you think I'd just stand around waitin' for you?" Rose asked, shooting a look behind her. "Oh you stupid alien, that's exactly what you thought I'd do!"

"You were suppose to wait where I left you, five and a half hours, that was our deal wasn't it?" The Doctor asked, sounding disgruntled as Rose pushed in the door to Jack and her shared bedroom before spinning around o face him.

"Why do you think now would be a good idea to bring up Madame Pompous?" Rose asked with a raised eye brow. The Doctor sputtered as he straightened his bow tie once, twice, and then a third time before answering.

"Madame de Pompadour." The Doctor corrected then cringed. Rose laughed then covered her mouth, trying to cover up the sound with a cough but the Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You are messing with me, Rose Tyler, you are messing with me!"

"Seventeen days Doctor!" Rose exclaimed but her rouse was up. She dropped her hand and grinned at him, tongue in teeth. "I had you goin' for a while there."

"I thought you weren't going to come with me!" The Doctor admitted then looked immediately uncomfortable with the small truth that had popped out of his mouth.

"Do you still want me to? Go with you that is." Rose clarified.

"Of course," The Doctor answered immediately, no hesitation. Rose felt herself grin again, her cheeks hurting from the largeness of it.

"No more leavin' me behind, I mean it Doctor." Rose had a mental debate with herself. She needed the Doctor to understand the severity of his actions, but she found it hard to show such vulnerability, especially to the Doctor. Logic won out in the end as she slowly continued. "It- it hurts Doctor, bein' left behind, I know you always have a good reason to, but I can't take it again. I can't, and if you can't do that one thing for me, then you best just leave me here." The Doctor wrung his hands out in front of him before stepping forward to cup Rose's face.

"I'm sorry," He exhaled softly, his breath a warm tickle against her face. "This regeneration doesn't stop and talk things out, just rushing about, always running around from one thing to another. Amy and Rory are use to it, only thing they've ever known, but I'll stop for you Rose Tyler." His forehead rested lightly against her own and Rose felt her shoulders drop, her defensive posture that she didn't even know she was doing was suddenly gone.

"Where to next then, Doctor?" Rose asked softly, a small smile playing at the edge of her lips as the Doctor pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead before giving her a manic, thankful grin.

"Anywhere, any when, any place you want to go Rose Tyler. The universe is yours for the taking." The Doctor turned to leave, but then turned back to her. "Well, that's not exactly true, you can't actually have it, a lot of people would be very upset about that. I know it'd be in good hands, your hands, very capable hands, probably make things a lot better. But master of the known universe? Sounds like a tough job, sounds like a lot of work, and can you imagine the hours that'd go into that? You'd be stuck behind a desk for the rest of eternity, Rose, the rest of eternity, you wouldn't like that would you?" Rose was laughing as she pushed him out of the bedroom.

Rose grabbed her rucksack and packed it with the clothes she had accumulated during her stay in Cardiff. She then took a quick shower and changed into denim, a blue vest, and a thin white button up. It was cold in Cardiff, but Rose was going to convince the Doctor to someplace sunny and warm, though knowing their luck they'd end up in the opposite place.

When Rose came out to say her goodbyes she took note of the space between the Doctor and Jack, and their unwillingness to look at each other. So Jack had that talk with the Doctor after all, and judging by the looks of it, the Doctor hadn't been too happy to listen. Sounded about right. Jack pulled Rose into a tight hug, and he didn't have to tell her she always had a place to stay, because she knew that and he knew that, and there was really no reason for either of them to say much on the matter.

They went on a series of trips, just the two of them. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the TARDIS again, just like old times. Exactly like old times actually. What with the Doctor trying to be all impressive and trying to land in safe places, but it never quite worked out the way he planned it to.

First it was Belladona, the most prestigious resort located on one of the 8 moons orbiting a planet that had been made uninhabitable when seven large volcanoes blew in a chain reaction to each other. The people of the planet had fled to the moons. Two of the eight were used purely as living space, four for work, and the last two were reserved as resort moons.

Belladona was one of the biggest tourist destinations. Guaranteed to be a nice, relaxing, completely safe little adventure full of hot tubs, skiing, wakeboarding, and 43 other fun, family-friendly activities offered at the wonderful Belladonna Resort!

Everything was going fantastically. Rose was in stitches as she watched the Doctor attempt to wakeboard at one of four different wave pools. He was loudly exclaiming, "I used to be quite good at this, I swear!" and "Oh shut it Rose Tyler, I'd like to see you give it a try!" As Rose continually laughed from the side lines, her eyes darting, without her consent, to the Doctors rather exposed body. She didn't know what she thought, that'd he'd try all the water activities in his tweed and tie, but when she stepped out of the changing room, in a bathing suit with a soft orange cover up and sandals, to see the Doctor standing there in nothing but swim trunks and a gray towel tossed over his shoulder, it had been a bit of a shock. What was even more shocking was the fact that he was really quite fit. It was distracting, near enough to the point where she didn't realize how truly awful he was at water sports.

Rose had pulled off her cover-up and kicked off her sandals, ready to show the Doctor up because he was really taunting her now when the lights suddenly went out. She felt arms go around her and, quite suddenly, Rose Tyler found herself in the middle of an attempted kidnapping.

Now Rose didn't like being kidnapped under the best of circumstances, and the combination of traveling with the Doctor and being the heiress of the Vitex fortune meant she was just a bit too use to being kidnapped. But she had been having a good time and she was not going to be kidnapped in her swim suit, not again at least. _Not for the fourth time_, she thought with just a touch of bitterness. It's not like Rose made a habit of flouncing around in a swim suit, but people tended to think it left her vulnerable and made her an easier target. Those people also tended to be wrong, it just left her angrier.

So Rose let her Torchwood training kick in. She was just about the flip the idiot onto his head when she felt weightless then sudden, aching nausea.

Now she was rightly mad. Transmat a girl on a holiday, in her swim suit?

After two bloodied noses, a bruised arse, and three very bruised egos, none of which belonged to Rose, she was issued a string of apologies. Between the apologies and the groveling she managed to get the real story behind the attempted kidnapping.

Luna Lunar, the other resort moon, had been kidnapping Belladona's guests and forcing them to relax on their moon instead. They had been doing this for decades, and the guests thought it was a fun treat. It was a bit of excitement for people who lived mostly ordinary lives.

Rose had been so shocked by the realization and their humble apologies that she agreed to try out their resort, free of charge. She was an honored guest, a VIP, no area was off limits to her.

Rose had been enjoying a deep tissue massage when the Doctor came busting in.

"What are you doin'?" Rose asked as the workers hid behind her. She had been quite proud of being able to get her towel wrapped tightly around her exposed torso without exposing herself. The Doctor, for his part, was looking anywhere but at her.

"Rescuing you?" The Doctor answered, though it came out sounding more like a question, and there was an uncertainty in his green eyes that still refused to meet her hazel ones.

Rose then explained the situation, to which the Doctor made a noise. A specific nose that had Rose narrowing her eyes and threatening to give him a good smack because he clearly knew about Luna Lunar and Belladona's rivalry and tourist kidnappings, but of course, he had forgotten. After that there was even more apologies made, this time for not also kidnapping her husband so they could enjoy Luna Lunars attractions aimed at couples. Rose had just been about to set them straight when the Doctor interjected, wondering exactly what attractions they were referring to.

They were treated like royalty after that. All they had to do was hold hands and smile at each other, which was no real chore for either of them. But after 3 days of the royal treatment both Rose and the Doctor started to feel antsy. They snuck away in the dead of night after a feast that had been held in their honor.

"After you, my dearest wife." The Doctor grinned manically as he held open the TARDIS doors for Rose. Rose stumbled in, grinning from ear to ear as she shushed herself, even though they were out of the city and safe inside the TARDIS.

"Oh why thank you, my lovely husband." Rose curtsied and yes, maybe they had a few drinks at the feast. It was held in their honor after all, and it would be considered very rude indeed to turn down the proffered drinks.

They both dissolved into giggles as they continued to play the married couple, though neither of them quite knew what marriage actually meant, so they just curtsied and bowed and called each other nauseating nicknames until the Doctor managed to finally get them off that moon. The Doctor believed tea was in order, the perfection solution to help sober them up, but half way down the hall they got distracted by the theatre system and ended up watching old, black and white horror films while reenacting their favorite parts dramatically until Rose, her head using the Doctor's thigh as a pillow, fell asleep quite suddenly.

They visited Rome at the height of its power, around 117 AD, and besides the part where Rose freed almost two dozen slaves, and they were nearly executed, everything went rather well. The Doctor grumbled about time lines and paradoxes and stupid humans mucking about with things they don't know, but Rose could tell he was only worried, and when he got worried he got a bit snarky and mean. They were, after all, locked in a dungeon, waiting to be hung or burned alive or fed to a hungry lion, Rose had no real clue how it'd end.

"Did I really mess up the time lines?" Rose had asked worriedly, sitting on the jump seat and chewing on her thumb nail. The Doctor exhaled, losing the tension in his shoulders that he had gained the second she had unlocked the 20 people from their chains. The Doctor had parked them safely in the vortex before taking a seat next to Rose.

"No, but you're not allowed to do things like that Rose, you can't see time the way I can, you don't know what will cause a paradox or a shift in the nexus. For some reason one freed person could mean you were never born, or the human race is made extinct in a nuclear holocaust." The Doctor explained, but the hard edge in his voice was gone.

"I couldn't just walk away," Rose admitted softly. What she didn't say was that the Other in her head had nearly growled in agreement when Rose had thought about freeing them. Rose might not feel the shift of time through her veins anymore, but she was nearly positive the Other did, and yes, maybe she should have thought things through a bit more, consulted the Doctor, not listened to the dark and timeless voice in the back of her mind so readily, but she had. She had acted and had to deal with the consequences, even if the only consequence was the Doctor being angry at her. Which he clearly was not anymore.

"I know," The Doctor sighed before pushing himself to his feet and clapping his hands together. "You, Rose Tyler," He pointed to her, narrowing his eyes just a fraction. "I forgot just how human you could be sometimes, you won't ever just sit back. My people would have hated you."

"The other Time Lords? Because I refuse to be passive?" Rose asked, trying not to show her eagerness towards learning more about the mysterious Time Lords.

"It's not just passivity, Rose Tyler, it's more than that. My people observed, they did not interfere, they did not join in, and-"

"They did not have a bit of fun?" Rose asked, her legs swinging, and the Doctor lost the edge he had been gaining during his talk of his long gone people. "I think your people and my mum would have gotten along. Mum didn't even like me goin' up town to Henriks, she wanted me to work around the corner at the butchers." The Doctor started to laugh, big belly laughter that had Rose leaning forward, smiling as she tried to decipher exactly what she had said to gain such a response.

"Could you just picture it? Your mum and the Time Lords, I'm not sure who would drive who barmy first!" The Doctor laughed harder.

"My moneys on my mum." Rose said with conviction, causing the Doctor to grin at her.

"Mine too," They grinned at each other before the Doctor starting darting around the console and taking them someplace new.

From there the Doctor took Rose to a masquerade ball on Veegen VI. It was the 182nd Masquerade Ball, held once a year by the High Garden royal family. Their name was long and alien, with lots of clicks and whistles that Rose had repeatedly tried to say until the Doctor told her that she could just call them the High Gardens. Rose had grumbled about barmy aliens over complicating everything, and even though she had been on the top floor of the wardrobe room, trying to figure out how to put on a big, ballroom dress, the Doctor had still heard her from down on the first floor.

The Doctor had parked the TARDIS already and hadn't told her where they were going, because it was suppose to be a surprise. That was until he realized she would need to be more dressed up than the sweats and a jumper she had on. Rose had laughed because the Doctor had been so disappointed that he couldn't surprise her, he had pouted for a full five minutes, though he kept repeating '_Century year old Time Lords do not pout, Rose Tyler'_, which only made her tease him even more.

"Doctor?" Rose called up from the top of the steps as she caught him mid-act of twirling around in front of the mirror in his nicest, and only, tux. He spun around and walked a few paces to get a better look at her. "How am I s'pose to get down the stairs in this get up?" That had the Doctor roaring because the staircase was small and curving and Rose's dress was about four feet wide.

In the end, Rose had to take it off or risk tossing herself over the railing of the staircase. When she began to strip out of the dress the Doctor had let out a squeak, and they had both stared at each other for a solid minute before a grin began to break out on Rose's face. She teased him mercilessly as she revealed the vest and shorts she wore underneath the dress, along with a pair of trainers. Just in case they had to run, she didn't want to do it in her knickers because she knew there'd be no chance of her running in that dress.

Rose teased the Doctor right up until they walked into the palace, yes palace. Rose had been in a couple of places like that, but this one was gorgeous. It looked like something right out of a Disney movie, and Rose half expected tiny singing birds to bring her food and drinks.

It didn't take long for the Doctor to realize it wasn't the 182nd annual ball, but the 132nd, and then he was going off a mile a minute before dashing off. As far as Rose could tell from his quick rant, something extremely important happened during the 132nd ball, and the Doctor was going to find the person who made it a solely unique experience.

Rose Tyler found herself studying the broad array of alien life forms that the fancy affair had brought about. There were a scattering of humans, aliens who had a humanoid shape, and those who did not. There was a large man or woman, or both, Rose wasn't quite sure the gender safe term to use, but they were big, near ten feet Rose would guess, and a bright blue color with white eyes and their hair looked to be made of crystals. Rose accidentally bumped into someone who looked like a goat, and there was everything in between. Everyone dressed in their best, with masks to cover part, or in some cases, all of their faces.

"Quite a shin-dig in there." Rose said as she moved out to a, mostly, secluded balcony. There was a man sitting on a stone bench, his fingers steeple and his head bowed. His skin was so dark it was nearly black, and with the dim lighting Rose couldn't quite tell the real color, though she guessed it was blue. His deep red hair was slicked back and he looked up at her with yellow eyes, slit like a cats.

"Shin-dig?" The man asked, his voice surprisingly low.

"Gathering, party, shin-dig, it's a good word. Quite like it myself." Rose continued to stand, though she would have loved to sit down, but her dress didn't really allow for sitting. Apparently sitting was uncivilized. "But here's what I don't get, rager goin' on in there, and you're out here, all by your lonesome."

"Rager?" The alien asked, his voice deep and posh and his innocent question making her grin.

"Big fancy party." Rose answered and he smiled, just a slight twitch of her lips but Rose counted that as a victory all the same. "I'm Rose by the way." Rose held out her hand, and the man studied it before looking up at her then taking her hand very slowly.

"Do you not know who I am?" He asked, his red eye brows raising in question.

"No, sorry, from out of town, me." Rose apologized with a smile.

"I'm- Romulus." He stood to his full height, which was quite impressive. He was dressed in smartly and the yellow mask set off nicely against his dark skin and bright eyes.

"Rose, oh wait, I already said that." Rose said with a nervous giggle because he still had her hand and he really was quite tall. He seemed to be studying her too, an emotion that Rose couldn't quite place on his face as he tilted his head to the side.

"Would you care to dance, Rose?" Romulus asked, the name rolling off his tongue a bit awkwardly, and he gave her a questioning look, to which she smiled. Rose never thought her name would be a hard one to pronounce, but she tried to mimic the look of pride her Doctor gave her when she pronounced something correctly.

"I'm afraid I don't actually know any of these dances." Rose apologized, glancing back inside before turning around and letting out a soft breath of air when she realized Romulus was a lot closer now. He was using his advanced height to look over her head, back into the crowded ballroom.

"You can follow my lead, that is, if you would like to learn, I will teach you." Romulus offered, a gentle smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"You would do that?" Rose asked in surprise and this time, she got a genuine smile.

"It would be my pleasure." Romulus led her out onto the dance floor. Rose did take notice how people moved aside for him, and gave him a wide berth of space, but she couldn't put any more thought into it as they began the dance, and all her concentration had to go into not stepping all over his booted feet. Rose knew all sorts of dancing, human and alien alike, but these dances were long and complicated and involved twists and partner switching and carefully placed hands. Just when Rose thought she was getting the hand of the dance, the music would change and it'd be a whole new one.

Rose couldn't help but laugh, and the more she laughed the more Romulus would smile at her.

"I am so sorry, Romulus, your feet must be all bruised by now." Rose apologized and then she realized that one of those complicated turns were coming up. Romulus stepped closer, put his hands on her hips and lifted her up, twisting her around and placing her back on her feet after the turn was over. Rose felt a bit breathless.

"Now there, that seemed to work wonderfully, wouldn't you say?" Romulus asked, another one of those genuine smiles lighting up his features.

"So you're just goin' to carry me around the dance floor?" Rose asked, letting out a quick apology as she turned the wrong way and slammed into another couple. The couple bowed and backed away quickly, probably to get out of Rose's range. She felt flush with embarrassment and she had no idea why Romulus was continuing to dance with her.

"I could," Romulus answered after thinking it over. Rose let out a breathy laugh as Romulus took one of her hands and she twirled out, both their arms extending, before twirling back into him, and accidentally elbowing him in the stomach.

"Oh god, we should stop before I do some serious damage! I swear, I'm usually a lot more graceful then this." Rose apologized again, stepping close to make sure she hadn't actually done any real damage to Romulus. There was a commotion to her left but Rose ignored it in favor of checking Romulus.

"Why would we stop? I haven't had this much fun in- in a very long time." Romulus said, quite seriously, as his eyes searched Rose's face. Rose licked her lips nervously. If Romulus had been a normal bloke she could of sworn he was hitting on her. "Rose I-"

"M'lord, the people are growing restless." A man that looked like a peacock interjected and it was then that Rose realized a fair amount of the room was looking at her and Romulus. Romulus looked up too and glanced about. "Others have been promised to you." Rose couldn't tell if the man actually resembled a peacock, or if he was just dressed as one. She glanced around for the Doctor but she couldn't pick out his black tux and plain black mask from the rest of the crowd.

"There's no need for that." Romulus said quietly, too quietly, because the peacock man kept speaking and now more were joining him. Rose didn't understand half the words they said, not because the TARDIS had suddenly stopped translating, but just because of the cultural barriers. But she did know this was bad. Something about him dancing too many times with her, that not being acceptable. Rose also guessed he was someone important, not that it made much of a difference to her, everyone at this ball was suppose to be important.

Yet everyone was staring now, and she meant everyone. This might be a fancy part, thousands of years into the future, with all types of high-bred aliens, but she could draw the similarities to a situation such as this, that she'd seen on earth. Back in her younger days, back with Jimmy Stone and Shareen Costello, when they'd be at a pub or club and something would happen between on group of people and another. It would mean a fight back then, though Rose wasn't sure these people would defile themselves with fisticuffs. Rose glanced around for the Doctor, wanting to share her glee over the word 'fisticuffs' and the fact that she knew it, and had used it in a proper sentence, but the Doctor was still missing. Which was really quite rude of him.

"Come now, this is really quite- well, improper." A woman whispered furiously. She looked a lot like Romulus, though she was even taller yet with long red hair that was tied severely back in a braid that reached her waist.

"I appreciate your concern, mother, it is well noted and taken under concentration." Romulus answered, and people gasped around them. Rose wasn't positive, but she guessed her London equivalent of that sentence would have been '_whatever, mum'_. Given the look Romulus's mother was giving him, she liked it about as much as Jackie had when Rose had dared uttered the words.

"Um- Romulus-" More gasping from the peanut gallery, making Rose flush crimson in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. She was thankful for her mask just about then. "Maybe I should go?" She asked more softly, trying to find some privacy, but that seemed to be the wrong answer also, because she had leaned in to speak quieter and a rush of whispering started up.

This was not the type of attention she wanted. All she had been doing was trying to get a sad-looking alien to smile. She saw the parallels to her Doctor, she did, and maybe that's why, out of a full ballroom of people willing to converse with her, she had sought out the one who had hidden himself away on a dark balcony. Thanks to this encounter that was the last nice thing she'd ever do again.

"Please don't," Romulus answered, though it wasn't a command in any sense. His fingers brushed hers and she knew it was only a request, one she could turn down and not fear any sort of repercussions. At least from him, she had no idea how the crowd would react. She had an inkling that Romulus and his family were near the top of the hierarchy, and she feared that maybe they were at the top.

Thankfully Rose didn't have to stutter through an answer to a question she didn't really comprehend because the lights shut off. Rose was nearly expecting the fingers that slid into hers, the fractionally cooler hand that gripped hers and pulled her way, gently but urgently. Rose followed, trusting his better eye sight to keep her from bumping into anyone, or anything- like a wall for instance.

"Did I muck everything up?" Rose finally broke the silence that had felt like a heavy weight pressing down on her slowly. They were in the vortex now and the Doctor was bent over the console, his head bowed, and his back towards the blonde.

"What?" The Doctor's head popped up and he turned distracted green eyes on her.

"Is this like Rome, or like my- my dad?" Rose asked worriedly, feeling like she was 19 again. It wasn't the best feeling in the world.

"Rome?" The Doctor asked before his eyes finally focused on her. "Go get changed, Rose Tyler, I have somewhere to take you." For a moment Rose felt like arguing, but she did as she was told instead, dread making her limbs heavy. It took longer than she'd have liked to get out of the dress, but when she did she let out a breath of relief. Corsets were not her most favorite article of clothing, and it was easier to think about that then whatever heavy consequences she had to deal with when she went back into the console room.

Rose put on a pair of black capris with a soft yellow jumper and her favorite white trainers, that weren't really white anymore. She pulled out all the odds and ends that kept her elaborately braided hair up and shook her head happily. Rose grabbed the Doctor's watch, which had been waiting for her on a small table by the wardrobe door, and put it on her wrist as she walked out of the room and down the hall.

When Rose got to the console room there was no Doctor in sight. The door, however, was left slightly ajar. Rose took that as a hint and walked out of the TARDIS, closing the door gently behind her.

"Welcome, Rose Tyler, to the Mercraft Museum of Romance. Santuki Mercraft made it for his life partner 342 years ago. It was meant as a remembrance, a small shrine to his late husband, but it expanded over the years. It's five stories tall with a total of 252 rooms full of love stories from around the universe." The Doctor explained from across the room, his eyes on Rose as she stood by the TARDIS, a bit nervously. "It is under constant construction with new exhibits and pieces being added daily."

The room the TARDIS was parked in was bare except for a row of benches near the walls that were covered from top to bottom in layers of letters. All different languages, most of which the TARDIS didn't translate so Rose's eyes jumped from something that looked like elaborate cursive to another that was full of dots and lines. Each was a love story, the couple that Rose could read led her to know that much. A particular letter, written on a cream colored paper with beautiful circular writing, caught Rose's attention.

"Doctor, isn't that your writin'?" Rose asked, looking over to see the Doctor using his sonic on a wall monitor. The Doctor turned and strode over to her. Rose didn't think it was, in particular, his writing, but she had just meant the writing of his people. She had seen the writing on post-it notes scattered around the TARDIS or sometimes displayed on the monitor in the console room.

"Yes that is," The Doctor said, sounding quite disgruntled as he pulled her away by her hand. Rose's eyebrows threatened to go into her hair line she was so surprised by his sudden behavior.

"That was your letter, wasn't it?" Rose asked instantly, a grin lighting her features.

"Thousands of letters and you pick that one!" The Doctor said, answering her question whether he was aware of it or not.

"You put a love letter up on that wall?" Rose wondered, more to herself then to anyone else. The Doctor dropped her hand and sped up his walking. Rose followed, a small frown playing on her features.

It was obviously his letter, but she was well aware that he'd never tell her the contents, or even actually confirm that he wrote it at any point in his long life. The letter that Madame de Pompadour had given her previous Doctor popped unbidden into her mind. Was that what his letter was about? Love ending before it even had a chance to begin? Time had moved quicker on in France then in had on the space ship and she had waited five and half hours, so how much time did the Doctor actually end up spending with the young, aristocratic French woman?

There was aloes the tree lady from Satellite Five, Lynda with a 'y', Cleopatra, also known as "Cleo" to the Doctor. Probably hundreds of others that Rose did not even want to consider, though her mind gladly supplied her with the long list she knew.

But perhaps it was something deeper than that. Something like what he has with River Song, or what he had with Sarah Jane Smith, or any other companion Rose didn't know because it was too difficult for him to speak about. Maybe it was about a Time Lady he had lost in the war?

Rose didn't let herself think of any other options but those. She couldn't think maybe it was about her. Hope was a very lovely thing, but when taken away it left you cold and bereft. How often had she fooled herself into thinking her and the Doctor had something special? More times than she could admit. Yes, she knew that the Doctor and her, at some point when she was younger and he wore a different face, did have something special, but he gave her up and she moved on, for a time, with another version of him. Even though her mind was thinking about it she forced herself to stop.

Rose knew she and the Doctor were special, but so was Amy and the Doctor or Donna and the Doctor. She was special, important even, but she knew that letter wasn't about her.

Rose had enough brooding and jogged to catch up with the Doctor and entwine her hand with his.

"Doesn't seem to attract many visitors," Rose commented, looking around at the empty rooms she would have loved to explore.

"What?" The Doctor asked, tracing patterns on her skin with his thumb as he distractedly looked at his sonic. "Oh no, we're just here on a Sunday is all. Well, they don't call it Sunday, but it's the Sunday-equivalent. Hate Sundays, me, even Sunday-equivalents, but sometimes they are dead useful, even if they are dreadfully dull." The Doctor explained as he tugged her this way and that way. Past statues and paintings and other pieces that represented love in different cultures.

"So they close on the Sunday-equivalent?"

"No pesky lines. The only thing I hate more than Sundays are queues."

"And pears." The Doctor gave her a solemn nod before going off into a rant of what he thought was the disgusting history of pears. Rose listened with a grin, too happy to tease him about his aversion to that particular fruit when she had thought he was angry with her only moments before. This particular body seemed even more rubbish at explaining himself, especially when it came to any strong emotion.

"How come people took Mercraft's little shrine o' love-" Rose grinned at this and the Doctor rolled his eyes. "And turned it into this place?"

"They had eight children, those two, and each child fell in love or had their heart broken and they added to it. Those children had children of their own and had their own stories to add and so on and so forth until the those people who could trace their lineage back to the original Mercraft's were no longer populating this planet. Couple hundred years later a girl of 18 loses her family when the air system on their space station goes wrong. She survived because she was learning maintenance on the outside of the craft, in a suit. Well what's a girl to do? She can't live there anymore, no one can actually since it's closed down. The government funds them enough money to get them where they want to go, but this girl, she grew up amongst the stars, sharing space with thousands of other of people, who are now mostly gone." His thumb had stopped tracing patterns against her hand, and now he was holding hers with a bit of desperation, but his voice and face remained the same, as if he was just telling a story that held only interest to him, and certainly did not bring up bad memories.

"How'd she get here then?" Rose asked, hugging his arm to her to lend a bit more comfort where she could without being outright obvious about it. The Doctor turned a smile to her anyways.

"This place had only been a two story, four bedroom house at the time, but it was still passed down through her family. Since she was the only one left, she inherited it. She thought being grounded might be a bit better for her, so she took the governments money and came here. The house had been abandoned for a long time by then, and it was in need of some serious renovations, but when she stepped inside she found something extraordinary. Seems the local kids had decided to continuing the local tradition of staring their love and heartbreak here. Some wrote letters, others left wood carvings or pin work. The place was overcrowded with it. It was just the sort of distraction she needed. She cleaned out the place, set it up properly and pretty, and put everything back in, and made an attraction."

"And then people just kept addin' on?" Rose asked, but was suddenly distracted as the Doctor came into a room full of statues made of what looked to be marble. They were all different sizes, but the one that dominated the room was centered and lit from above by a skylight. "But that's- how- when-" Rose couldn't hold onto one thought let alone have time to form it into a proper question so she just walked slowly around the large statue instead.

It was two dancers, and it was so beautifully done that Rose thought if she reached out and touched the hem of the woman's dress it would feel soft between her fingers, though she knew it was completely solid. The woman was in a long ballroom dress with half of her face covered in a decorative mask, the feathers coming off the mask looked like they should move in the wind. The portion of her face that wasn't covered revealed a wide smile, and it was if her entire being radiated happiness. The male of the pairing stood quite taller than her, and he was lean with more angular features, but even his face was softened by the effect of his smile. It wasn't as wide as the woman's, but it was still powerful on its own.

"Doctor?" Rose turned, confused as to the reason being that there was a very realistic looking statue of herself and Romulus dancing in a mansion full of love stories. The Doctor wasn't looking at her though, he was studying the faces of the two dancers.

"You were dancing with the next in line for the High Garden crown, that ball was for him." The Doctor answered in an oddly emotionless voice. "I-I had a granddaughter, a very long time ago, named Susan. I didn't deserve her, bright little spot of sunshine in my life, I was such a grump in those days too. But she loved the story of the High Garden Prince and his disappearing love. I must have told it to her three or four dozen times." Rose didn't chance moving, hardly let herself breathe as she stared at the Doctor. "Susan would always speculate about the reason of the woman leaving, especially when they were so obviously in love." Something changed in his tone with the last few words, but Rose couldn't identify it.

"We just danced," Rose finally spoke, her eye brows raised as the spell was broken and the Doctor turned his face to her.

"The royal family are not a tactile people, Rose. They don't just dance, not ever." The Doctor answered, still in that odd voice. It was giving Rose the creeps, it was.

"Blimey, how was I s'pose to know that then?" Rose finally lost her temper, raising her voice as she motioned to the statute. "You swanned off and I just saw a man, sittin' outside by himself, lookin' lonely and miserable! He's the one who asked me to dance, I even said I didn't know the dances, and he said it was fine. I didn't know he was bloody royalty, and I definitely didn't know he was _the royalty_. If you had been a better driver this wouldn't have even happened in the first place!" Rose wasn't sure why she was yelling, or where her anger was coming from, but after she was done she felt defeated and tired. She turned her eyes back to the statute and let out a soft sigh.

"He loved you, probably from the moment you walked up to him, showing concern where everyone else showed respect and a healthy dose of reverence. He ended up marrying a good friend, they never properly loved each other, but they rescued twelve orphans from a war torn planet and adopted each and every last one of them. He talked about you, until the day he died." Rose closed her eyes against that, but she still felt retched. "I could take you back."

"What?" Rose asked in shock.

"They do a fair amount of traveling, those royalty, and his life isn't set in stone, it could change. I could take you back, and you could stay with him." There was that odd tone again and Rose tried to work her way through it, tried to figure out what he wanted.

"If you don't want me with you anymore I'd rather you drop me back off with Jack." Rose finally said with a resigned sigh.

"What? I was trying to offer you a chance at love-"

"It was just a dance to me, Doctor!" Rose shouted over him, then immediately felt bad as she looked up at the statue. "Could we go back in time and stop us from goin' to that dance? No, don't answer that, crossin' time lines and reapers, I know." Rose hesitantly stood beside the Doctor. "You aren't mad at me?"

"Mad at you? No, Rose- no. I'm not mad at you." But Rose could see the clear frustration that was aimed directly back at himself. "This is brilliant, all this time, thinking about that story, after the dozens of times telling it to my Susan. What happened to her though? One time I told her she travelled amongst the stars, I think I did it just to shut her up, but I didn't realize how right I was." The Doctor entwined their fingers and he lost a bit more of the tension in his shoulders as Rose squeezed his hand gently.

"We're a bit of a mess," Rose admitted, and the Doctor looked like he was going to argue but then gave her a sheepish grin.

"We'd take aces in mess." Rose laughed as the Doctor pulled her away and they started down the hall, taking their time on their way back to the TARDIS.

"Doctor- look!" Rose said excitedly, pointing at another sculpture. The Doctor turned and then looked shocked. "The Stone Rose, they put it in a museum dedicated to love." Rose couldn't be positive, because he turned so quickly, but she swore that the Doctor turned bright red before tugging her quickly through the museum and into the TARDIS.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Thank you for all the, frankly, quite wonderful reviews! This chapter and I had to go a few rounds before I decided I had to just post it or I would nit-pick at it for eternity, so I do apologize if it's a bit all over the place, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!


	11. Chapter 11

"Apalapucia." The Doctor announced suddenly.

"Say it again." Amy asked.

"Apalapucia." The Doctor repeated, running about the TARDIS console.

"Apalapu-"

"-Chia!"

"Apalapucia." Rory said, more slowly.

"Apalapucia." The Doctor repeated once more, continuing his spin about the console as Rose sat on the jump seat, grinning from ear to ear at the scene.

"Apalapucia. What a beautiful word." Amy said, smiling proudly as she said the word correctly.

"Beautiful word, beautiful world!" The Doctor pulled a lever on the console and the TARDIS shook, throwing them about a bit. "Apalapucia, voted Number 2 planet in the Top 10 Greatest Destinations for the Discerning Intergalatic Traveler." The Doctor explained as Rory made his way around the console to stand in front of him.

"Why couldn't we go to Number 1?" Rory asked.

"It's hideous!" The Doctor sounded appalled and slightly insulted, which only made Rose's grin widen. "Everyone goes to Number 1, Planet of the Coffee Shops."

"Sounds lovely," Rose said, only half joking. The Doctor shot her a dark look before spinning back to the couple.

"Apalapucia- I give you sunsets, spires, soaring, silver colonnades." The Doctor spun his way to the door, his two companions jumping after him excitedly. Rose hopped down from the jump seat and followed at a much slower pace.

"Yes, but is there goin' to be a nice cuppa for us?" Rose quipped, earning another dark look from the Doctor. "Bet you ten quid we're nowhere near Apalapucia." Rose whispered to the TARDIS. The response back was a small flicker of her main light.

"I give you-" The Doctor opened the TARDIS door grandly for his companions.

"Doors." Rory finished, not sounding the least bit surprised.

"Doors. Yes, I mean, I-I give you doors." The Doctor poked his head out before walking out of the TARDIS. "But, on the other side of those doors, I give you sunsets, spires, soaring, silver colonnades." Rory and the Doctor were out of the TARDIS but Amy stayed behind, glancing all around the console before calling out.

"Have you seen my phone?" Amy asked, sticking her head out the door.

"Your phone?" The Doctor asked as Rose made her around Amy and looked at the white, white room they were in. Reminded her of hospital, except worse.

"Should have gone to the planet of coffee houses." Rose muttered, not quite quietly, to Rory, who grinned in amusement and both of them immediately started to look busy when the Doctor glowered at them.

"Yeah." Amy answered, smartly ignoring Rose and Rory.

"Your mobile telephone." The Doctor started and Rose exchanged a bemused look with Rory behind the aliens back. "I bring you to a paradise planet two billion light-years from Earth, and you want to update- twitter?" The Doctor whispered the last word, as if it was a terrible swear. Rose had no idea what twitter was, whatever it was it hadn't existed in her other world, but judging by the Doctor's reaction it was no good.

"Sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades. It's a camera phone." Amy explained softly, as if talking to a petulant child, which the Doctor was at the moment. Rose stood next to Rory by the door, which actually looked more like an elevator door now that Rose was closer to it.

"On the counter, by the DVDs." The Doctor reluctantly admitted, still sounding put out.

"Thank you." Amy said before disappearing back into the TARDIS.

"How do we get in?" Rory asked as the Doctor came to stand between Rose and Rory, all staring at the door.

"I don't know. Push a button." The Doctor suggested, looking a bit pleased with himself. There were two buttons, one green with an anchor that had 'Green Anchor' written above it, and one red with two vertical lines that said 'Red Waterfall'. Rory choose the Green Anchor. The doors slid open to reveal an equally white room but this one at least had a clear table and chairs in it. "Okay, so rain check on the soaring, silver colonnades."

"Yeah." Rory shrugged and Rose walked into the room, looking at the giant mirror-like object situated on the table. Both men stepped in behind her and separated to either side of the table. "It's a magnifying glass." The door swooshed close behind them.

"Hey, hey it's locked." Amy's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, push the button." Rory called out.

"The Green Anchor!" Rose added though she already heard the beep of a button being pushed.

"Come on, Amy." Rory mumbled, leaning against the table with his head down. Rose traced the Green Anchor on the wall with a finger tip. Rory let out a long, suffering sigh before going back to the door and pushing the button next to it. The door swooshed open, revealing the TARDIS and the white room they had come from.

The Doctor was still studying the room, though Rose had no idea why, it was practically one of the most barren, boring rooms she had been in. Rose moved next to the Doctor and he laced her fingers with his without looking, his palm cool against her own. Rose let out a soft, content noise as she leaned against the Doctor, her cheek resting on his arm.

"I like the new jacket." Rose admitted and the Doctor beamed down at her, though his smile didn't quite erase the worry in his eyes. "Easier on the skin than the tweed, bit rough that." One on of their solo missions they had gotten separated, of course, and when he came back he was only in his cotton button up with a furious look on his face and a refusal to talk about his beloved tweed jacket.

"Where, on wherever we are, is my wife?" Rory asked, stepping back into the room and beginning to sound upset. Rory only ever got upset when it involved Amy. The Doctor tugged Rose back to the table and sat down in one of the white, high chairs. He reached out slowly and pushed a green button on the giant magnifying class. A moment later Amy appeared on the screen.

"Rory?" The Doctor questioned. "I think I've found her."

"What do you mean you found her? Whoa!" Rory exclaimed as he leaned in behind the Doctor. "But- no- but- but she's not- she's not here!" Rory yelled, running around to the other side of the table. The Doctor stood up to look beyond the glass, leaning left and right. "I can see her, but she's not here."

"Must be a communication device." Rose released the Doctor's hand to have a look under the table but she couldn't spot any wires.

"Where am I?" Amy's voice came from above. "In fact, where are you?" The door swooshed open again and Rose stood up, expecting to see Amy but got a shock when she saw the thing that stepped forward. It looked robotic but it was as white as the walls next to it. It was holding up a rubber looking hand that looked a bit off from the rest of it.

"Hand! Hello, Hand. Robot with hands, Rory." The Doctor said rapidly, holding up his own hands and subtly moving in front of Rose. Rose couldn't help but grin ruefully at that considering if it came down to an actual fight she was probably the best bet against a robot.

"Welcome to the Two-Streams Facility. Will you be visiting long?" The Robot asked, waving his hand about. The Doctor waved back though the robot didn't seem to have eyes to see the motion.

"Uh, Doctor, something's happening." Amy's voice rang out as Rory shrugged and held out his arms in question.

"Amy?!" The Doctor dodged back down to look into the communication device as Rose stepped around the robot, giving it a wide berth of space as she examined it. "Ah! Stay calm. Stay still! Uh, Time's gone wobbly. I hate it when it does that." The Doctor mumbled, mostly to himself, as he pointed his sonic at the communication mirror.

The robot's hand shot out, making both Rose and Rory jump back.

"Will you be visiting long?" The robot asked.

"Good question. Bit sinister. What's the answer to not get us killed?" Rory asked, leaning as far back as he could from the robot. Rose walked behind the robot but it paid her no heed, she took note of the unprotected wires in its neck.

"It's okay. I've got you, you're fine." The Doctor said into the mirror, sounding calmer than before but still a bit panicked.

"Will you be visiting long?" The robot asked again, pushing forward towards Rory.

"Doctor, a little help, Doctor!" Rory yelled out as the robot pushed the panicking man into a corner. Rose pulled out a knife from her boot and the Doctor shot her an indecipherable look as he turned to help Rory. "What do I tell it?!" Rose didn't really want to cut the wires, she had no idea what sort of trouble that would land them in but if the thing continued to threaten Rory she'd have no choice.

"Will you be visiting long?"

"I've been here for a week." Amy's angry voice rang out.

"A week?! I'm so sorry. Aha- same room, different times- two different timestreams, running parallel, but at different speeds. Amy! You're in a faster timestream." The Doctor explained in a voice that was quickly growing more panicked.

"Doctor!" Rory shouted as the robots hand came up closer to his face. "Why has this got hands?" Rory asked as the Doctor used his sonic on the mirror again.

"Organic skin. Ultimate universal interface. Grown and grafted, not born. I mean, it's actually seeing with its fingers, scanning the room. But why not just give it eyes?" The Doctor stepped close to the robot, closer than Rose was willing to get.

"Will you be visiting long?" The robot questioned again.

"As long as it takes." The Doctor answered before leaning back down to stare into the glass. "Amy, what exactly, did you do?"

"I just- I came in and I pressed the door button." Amy explained.

"Amy, there are two buttons. The Green Anchor and the Red Waterfall. Which one did you push?" Rory asked, moving around the robot and sounding much calmer now that he wasn't backed into a corner.

"I pushed the Red Waterfall." Amy admitted, looking down in shame. Rory grunted as he opened the doors and walked out. The Doctor continued to chat with Amy, probably trying to distract her from the fact that she had been locked in a room, alone, for a whole bleedin' week. Rose wondered why the ginger woman hadn't just left. The door opened back open, revealing a very irate looking Rory.

"I pressed Red Waterfall and she wasn't there!"

"Okay, so you can't follow her directly." The Doctor worked out loud, standing up from the chair to start pacing. The robot turned to Rose and she slid the blade back into her boot and gave it a wave. "You know, it's never simple! Did you hear that, Handbot? She pressed the wrong button, that's all. We're aliens! We didn't know!"

"Statement rejected." A red button on the robots chest glowed. "Apalapucia is under planet wide quarantine."

"I owe the TARDIS ten quid," Rose muttered, earning a raised eye brow from the Doctor.

"This is a Kindness Facility for those infected with Chen-7." The Robot continued on to explain. The Doctor suddenly pulled his coat up to cover his mouth and nose.

"What?" The Doctor asked. Rory stood up suddenly from his spot of staring at Amy and stood by the Doctor, also using his own jacket to cover half his face. Rose gave an eye roll as she leaned against the table, thinking, if there was some infectious disease about they should have already caught it and covering their faces now would do no good.

"Chen-7, hmm?" Rory questioned.

"The one-day plague." The Doctor answered, staring at the robot in horror.

"What, you- you get it for a day?" Rory asked.

"No, you get it and you die in a day." The Doctor corrected.

"There are 40,000 residents in the Two-Streams Facility. Please remain in the sterile areas. Visiting hours are now." The robot continued to explain as the Doctor and Rory uncovered their faces. The robot touched its hands together and disappeared. Transmat beam, Rose recognized.

"Sterile area. I'm safe." The Doctor mumbled, coming back to sit down in the chair.

"What about me?!" Amy asked angrily.

"Chen-7 only affects two-hearted races, like Apalapucians." The Doctor explained and Rose raised her eye brows at that.

"And Time Lords." Rory added helpfully, earning a dark look from the Doctor.

"Yeah, like me. Walk into that facility, I'm dead in a day. Time is faster on Amy's side of the glass. Uh- Amy, you said you'd been here a week. What did you eat?" The Doctor resumed his pacing.

"Nothing. I wasn't hungry." Amy answered.

"No, because all that Red Waterfall time is compressed. That's the point of the Time Glass. It syncs up the two timestreams for visits. You could be in here for a day and watch them live out their entire lives."

"And watch them grow old in front of your eyes?" Rory asked, looking down at the glass. "That's horrible."

"No, Rory, it's kind. You've got a choice- sit by their bedside for 24 hours and watch them die, or sit in here for 24 hours and watch them live. Which would you choose?" The Doctor asked before yanking up the glass.

"Unless the person you're watching isn't dyin' in the first place, then yeah, lovely idea, except they don't seem to be able to tell the difference between sick and not." Rose frowned as she spoke, looking a bit disturbed at the prospect.

"I'm here, Amy, I'm right here." The Doctor mumbled gently to the glass.

"Where are you? Am I looking at you?" Amy asked.

"Turn left, just a fraction. Bit more. Stop. That's it." The Doctor grinned.

"Eye-to-eye?"

"Eye-to-eye-to-eye."

"Hello." Rory greeted over the Doctor's shoulder, looking into the glass.

"Amy, I'm taking the Timeglass back to the TARDIS, like Satnav. I can use it to get a lock on you, then smash through, using the TARDIS, to get you out. Until then, you're on your own." The Doctor explained seriously.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Rory asked as the Doctor scanned the timeglass.

"Locking it on to Amy, small act of vandalism. No one will mind." Alarms started blaring. "Ah! That would be the small-act of vandalism alarm."

"Does it ever get tiresome bein' wrong all the time?" Rose asked as she stood up straight from her spot leaning against the table and started to make her way out of the room and to the TARDIS, ignoring the tongue sticking out of the Doctor's mouth, directed at her.

"Amy, I need you to go into the facility, just for a bit. Find somewhere safe and leave me a sign. Remember- you're immune to Chen-7, but don't let them give you anything. They don't know you're alien. Their kindness will kill you. Now, go." The Doctor commanded.

"Rory." Amy said, to which Rory hummed at her. "I love you." The Doctor beamed at them both. "Now, save me. Go on."

The three of them made their way back into the TARDIS.

"This is locked on to Amy permanently. Play the signal into the console. The TARDIS will follow it." The Doctor explained as he hooked up the timeglass to the console. "Now, then, I know you're in here." The Doctor muttered, looking through a tool box as the console made a warbling sound and sparked slightly. The Doctor made a triumphant noise, shoving on a pair of glasses before turning towards Rory. "How do I look?"

"Ridiculous." Rory answered back without hesitation.

"Glasses are cool, see?" He took off the glasses and put them on Rory. "Oh! Yes. Hello, handsome man."

"Oh, hello." Rory said, sounding quite pleased but Rose saw what was on the monitor and could only roll her eyes.

"Hello, Rorycam."

"Huh? Oh, you can see what I see."

"We're breaking in to Two-Streams. Now, I can't go in there. The Chen-7 will kill me. No regeneration. You will be my eyes and ears." The Doctor explained and Rory nodded along with him.

"Rorycam. Rescue Amy. Got it."

"That's the spirit. Now, smashing through a timewall could get a bit hairy."

"Is it safe?"

"Don't know. Never tried. Best hold onto something." Rose felt something touch her hand and looked down to see a seatbelt. She sent a silent thanks to the TARDIS as she strapped herself into the jump seat and watched as Rory took hold of the railing.

The Doctor laughed as the TARDIS shook violently. Despite being strapped in Rose still held onto the jump seat and cringed when Rory looked like he'd be a bit ill. The TARDIS landed with a shuddering and the familiar whooshing noise.

"Red Waterfall, we made it!" Rory exclaimed as he opened the door. Rose unbuckled herself and stood up, stretching out the kinks before beginning to go help look for Amy.

"Good on us." The Doctor, as if expecting that maybe wouldn't have happened. "No Rose, you need to stay."

"But I've only got one heart, I should be fine." Rose said, not saying that if she went they'd probably have a better chance of finding Amy. Not that Rory wasn't brilliant on his own, but he wasn't exactly a fighter and he might have to disable some Kindness Robots before the day was done.

"I would feel more comfortable if she came," Rory added but the Doctor was shaking his head.

"If this goes pear shaped, and it always goes pear shaped, then we'll need Rose as our emergency plan." The Doctor explained, pointing to Rose who grinned in response. Rory signed in resignation before stepping outside the TARDIS.

"_How do we know that we're in the same Red Waterfall as Amy?"_ Rory asked smartly, earning a worried look from the Doctor that, luckily, Rory could no longer see.

"Focus on the positive." The Doctor said instead of answering. "We locked on to Amy's timestream. Eyes front, soldier!"

_"Right, yes, sorry."_

"Apalapucians are the great cultural scavengers, Rory. This gallery's a scrapbook of all their favorite places." The Doctor explained as Rorycam looked at the Mona Lisa then a great big blob of rock with holes in it.

"_Bit of Earth, bit of alien. Bit of…"_ He looked at something that was long, cylindrincal, purple and oozing something. The Doctor and Rose exchanged a disgusted look. "_Whatever the hell that is."_

The Doctor took a seat next to Rose. Rose had taken notice that the jump seat was now situated for two people, had been ever since she had entered the TARDIS from Cardiff. Whether this was a chosen design by the Doctor or something the TARDIS herself switched up Rose had no idea, but she was glad for it.

"Is it all just robots? Shouldn't there be a medical staff? Someone we could explain what 'appened to, someone that will understand mistakes." Rose questioned as the Doctor crossed his legs and watched the Rorycam with careful eyes.

"No, no. They set up the facility and then they take off, traveling around the universe to set up more facilities. A kindness, so people, or aliens, can live out their entire life even if they've just got the tiniest amount of time. No one to explain it to." The Doctor sighed, resting his head on Rose's shoulder for a moment before surging up to his feet.

"_Where is everyone?"_ Rory asked. The Doctor yanked off his jacket, tossing it beside Rose and strode to the console.

"Right, Rory, switch the timeglass on and sonic it. I'm sending a command signal to the screwdriver. Amy's here, somewhere. If I can just get a lock on her." The Doctor was pushing buttons on the console as Rose pulled one of her legs up onto the seat and wrapped her arms around it while watching the Doctor mutter and tinker. "I wonder what happens if we mix the filters." There was muttering coming from the Rorycam now, and tons of dark shadows moving across the screen. Rose dropped her leg to lean forward, eye brows raised and mouth open in surprise. "And there they are, 40,000 timestreams, overlapping. Red Waterfall isn't one timestream. It's thousands."

"_Are they happy_?" Rory asked and Rose couldn't help but smile at that.

"Oh, Rory, trust you to think of that. I think they're happy to be alive. Better than the alternative." The Doctor said with his own smile.

"Are they all goin' to be dead within a day? Within our day, a lifetime for them." Rose asked, brows furrowed and the Doctor turned to her.

"Cheery one, you are." The Doctor scoffed.

"Doctor." Rose said warningly, she wouldn't be as easily deflected away from her questions as she had been when she was younger.

"Yes, alright, yes. Within a day for us they will be dead. Happy now?" The Doctor asked, turning back to his fiddling.

"The whole race is gone?" Rose asked despite the Doctor's growing mood.

"Oh no no, the ones who didn't get the virus are sent off world, away. Except for the ones who stayed behind in the Green Anchor safe zones to watch their loved ones, to be with them. But there's another planet inhabited by them now. Not nearly as nice as this one though." The Doctor explained, sounding in a much better mood.

"And you never stopped and wondered why a majority of the population of a planet decided to get up and leave?" Rose asked.

"I've been busy!" The Doctor shouted, his moods switching again but Rose could only laugh.

_"I come in peace! Peace!_" The Doctor and Rose's attention was pulled back to the Rorycam. "_Peace! Peace!"_

"_I waited._" Came a distorted voice, the face of the person threatening Rory hidden behind a mask.

_"Sorry, what?"_

_ "I waited for you." _The person eased back from Rory, standing up tall. "I waited-" They pulled the mask off to reveal Amy but there was something wrong, something off about her.

"_Amy. Doctor, what's going on_?" Rory questioned as they all stared at Amy's aged face. The Doctor's eye brows rose, his face blank. _"Amy."_

"Uh, I think the timestream lock might be a bit wobbly." The Doctor explained in his usual way that explained nothing at all, unless you spoke Doctor, which Rose did, a bit.

"We arrived later in her timestream." Rose explained.

"_No, please, please."_ Rory begged as Amy held up an impressive looking sword.

"_Duck."_ Rory, presumably, ducked and then turned to face a handbot with a hole in its head.

"She's impressive." Rose piped up, which earned her a look from the Doctor.

"_The handbots carry a black box in case they go offline. I've changed the cause of termination from 'hostile' to 'accidental'. Easy to reprogram. Use my sonic probe."_ The older-Amy explained.

"Oh yeah, likin' the older Amy." Rose commented, earning her another look from the Doctor. "What? I like the younger one too, just sayin' she's impressive is all."

_"Because the only way I've survived this long is by making the handbots think I don't exist. Don't touch the hands. There's anesthetic transfer in the skin. If they touch you, you go to sleep."_ Amy further explained, impressing Rose but the Doctor's face just seemed to grow even more worried.

"_But you're still here."_ Rory said, sounding heartbroken.

_"You didn't save me."_ Amy answered plainly, walking away from Rory.

"_But this is the saving! This is the us saving you! The Doctor just got the timing a bit out!"_ Rory explained, screaming the last part and making Rose jump. Rose had never heard Rory raise his voice before. The Doctor held up his hands and mouthed a sorry, as if Rory was right there in the TARDIS with them.

_"I've been on my own here a long, long time. I've had decades to think nice thoughts about him. Got a bit harder to stay charitable once I entered decade four."_ Amy deadpanned, no emotion in her voice.

"_40 years? Alone?"_ Rory asked and the Doctor turned away from the monitor. If anyone knew about being alone it was the century old Time Lord.

"_36 years. Thanks."_ Amy said, looking down and fixing her hair.

"_No. Right. I mean… you look great. Really, really."_ Rory said, sounding completely sincere and Rose would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so dire. She hopped off the jump seat and came to stand beside the Doctor, loosely lacing her fingers with his. He gave her fingers a tight squeeze but that was all the attention he paid to her.

"_Eyes front, soldier."_

"_Still can't win, then._" Rory said, chuckling softly.

_"In fact, I think I can now definitely say I hate him. I hate the Doctor. I hate him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life. And you can hear every word of this through those ridiculous glasses, can't you, Raggedy man?"_ Amy said, pushing her face up close to the glasses so they could see just how much she had aged. Rory was right, Rose thought, she did look good for nearly 60.

"Uh- yes. Putting the speakerphone on." The Doctor announced, pulling Rose over to the console to press a button and making a feedback sound whine throughout the TARDIS.

"_You told me to wait, and I did. A lifetime."_

"Amy!" The Doctor tried but Amy wasn't listening.

_"You've got nothing to say to me."_

"Amy, behind you!" The Doctor shouted as two handbots approached them from behind. Amy ducked underneath them, tossing her sword to Rory before pressing their hands together.

_"Feedback- knocks them out. Learned that trick on my first day."_

"Oh that was impressive! What? It was!" Rose shrugged at the Doctor's look.

"_Thank you blondie."_ Amy grumbled.

"Oi, don't think you can get lippy with me Amelia Pond-Williams, you might appear to be older but I was still born before you." Rose lectured with a mock-stern voice that did nothing to hide her grin.

_"Okay, so, we just take the TARDIS back to the right timestream, yeah? We can stop any of this happening."_ Rory interrupted as he followed Amy out of the room they had been in and down a hall. The Doctor looked down, his grip on Rose's hand tightening.

"We locked on to a timestream, Rory, this is it." The Doctor answered.

"We're apart of events now, if we try to go to another timestream we could blow a hole in the universe, or we could end up even further along in Amy's lifetime." Rose explained further, earning a small proud look from the Doctor.

"_This is so wrong."_ Rory mumbled.

"_I got old, Rory. What did you think was going to happen?"_ Amy gritted out, sounding annoyed and hurt.

"_Hey, I don't care that you got old, I care that we didn't grow old together. Amy, come on, please._" Rory had stopped Amy, grabbing her arm and making her face him.

"Oh he is good." Rose muttered low so only the Doctor could hear.

"_Don't touch me. Don't do that."_ Amy pulled away from Rory.

"_It's like you're not even her."_ Rory accused.

"_36 years, 3 months, 4 days of solitary confinement. This facility was built to give people a chance to live. I walked in here, and I died. Do you have anything to say? Anything, Doctor?"_ Amy asked, staring directly into the monitor again.

"Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?" The Doctor asked, which is probably not what Amy had in mind.

_"I made it. And it's a sonic probe."_ Amy snapped back.

"_You made a sonic screwdriver?"_ Rory asked in awe.

"_Probe."_ Was Amy's only response as she used her sonic 'probe' to open a door and walk inside.

"Does anything faze you?" The Doctor asked after turning off the speakerphone and giving Rory and Amy a little privacy.

"Loads of things, I'm sure." Rose answered back, dropping the Doctor's hand to walk slowly around the console. She felt the Doctor's dark gaze on her. "I didn't handle those aliens in the year 5 billion too well." Rose reminded him, leaning slightly to peer at him around the console.

"I probably should have eased you into that a bit better." The Doctor admitted, which made Rose grin.

"Probably, yeah." Rose continued her trek around the console, ending up on the opposite side of the Doctor than she had started on. He peered down at her with ancient green eyes framed in such a young looking face. "I did ask to be impressed, so it's not all your fault. Have you seen the Face of Boe since then?" The Doctor opened his mouth to explain something but they both were distracted by something happening on the monitors.

_"Oh, don't get sentimental. It's just a robot. You'd have done the same."_ Amy growled out. She had taken a handbot for a pet and removed its hands.

"I don't know that I would've." The Doctor spoke up after turning back on the speakerphone.

_"And there he is, the voice of God. Survive, because no one's going to come for you. Number one lesson. You taught me that."_ Amy said angrily.

"Number One lesson I was taught was don't wander off," Rose spoke up, earning her a soft touch on the tip of her nose from the Doctor before he turned his attention back to the monitor.

"Is that really all I taught you?" The Doctor asked.

_"Don't you lecture me, blue-box man, flying through time and space on whimsy. All I've got, all I've had, for 36 years, is cold, hard reality. So, no, I don't have a sonic screwdriver, because I'm not off on a romp. I call it what it is, a probe, and I call my life what it is- hell."_ Amy explained. Rose felt a bit of indignation spark inside of her but a look from the Doctor silenced her, for now. But Rose was quite over the pity party. They had messed up the timestreams, but they had come and even though it had been 36 years to Amy it had only been moments for them. They hadn't abandoned her and they would find a way to fix this.

"Amy Pond, I'm going to put this right. You said you learned from an interface. Can I speak with it?" The Doctor asked.

"_It doesn't work in here. 2:23."_ Amy said, looking at her phone. "_The garden will be clear now. Stay or go?"_ Amy strode back up to Rory, looking as if she didn't care about his answer but Rose knew better, everything was hanging on his answer.

_"Sorry, me? No. I'm coming with you."_ Rory said as if there were no other option.

"_Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever." _And then Amy was striding off. Out of the darkened maintenance room they were situated in, down a hall, and into another white room. From there they went to the garden, which was lovely. "_When I first came here, I had to trick the interface into giving me information. I've reprogrammed it now. It'll tell me anything, except how to escape."_

_ "You hacked it? That's genius."_ Rory exclaimed, sounding once again very impressed with his wife.

"Sorry to interrupt that beautiful moment, but temporal engines like that have a regulator valve. It has to be kept at a distance from the main reactor, or there'd be feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?" The Doctor asked.

"_The regulator valve is held within."_ The interface answered, showing a hologram of the machine.

"Oh, very, very- ah, interface, I need to run through some technical specifications. Rory, give me to Amy a minute." The Doctor asked as he hoped around the console. Rose took up her seat in the jump seat to give the Doctor some room.

_"They look ridiculous."_ Amy muttered, about the glasses.

"_That's what I told him."_ Rory agreed. "_Still, anything beats a fez, eh?"_ They both started to laugh but Amy stopped nearly as suddenly as she had started. "_What is it?"_

_ "I think that's the first time I've laughed in 36 years."_ Amy answered back, probably more honestly than she had meant to.

"_I'll just um- leave you two geniuses alone. I'll be back in a minute."_ Rory walked off.

"There's still time, Amy. There's still time to fix everything." The Doctor said softly but Rose knew that Amy no longer believed in her raggedy man.

"Okay, so, here's the plan- time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in two-streams, it's extra wobbly. I've worked out a way to hijack the temporal engines and use them to fold two points of Amy's timeline together. We're bringing her out of the then and into the now!" The Doctor explained as he paced around the console room, looking from one monitor to the other. The glasses were back on Rory. "Amy, I just need to borrow your brain a minute. It won't hurt- probably- almost probably, and then, Amy Pond, I'm going to save you."

"_No_!" Amy shouted at the glasses. "_Time's up. Handbots coming."_ Rory and Amy walked away from the garden and back into the facility.

"Amy, you've got to help us help you. I need you to think aback 36 years ago. Amy! Amy!" But Amy had walked away, behind the doors.

"_You told her to leave us a sign. She did."_ Rory said, and they all read the writing on the door. Doctor, I'm waiting. "_And she waited. Oh, Amy."_ Rory sighed before following after Amy. "_Why won't you help yourself?"_

_"He wants to rescue past me from 36 years back, which means I'll cease to exist. Everything I've seen and done dissolves. Time is rewritten."_ Amy explained and by the look on the Doctor's face that was exactly is plan.

"_That's- that's good, isn't it?"_ Rory asked in confusion.

"_I will die. Another Amy will take my place- an Amy who never got trapped at Two-Streams, an Amy who grew old with you, and she, in 36 years, won't be me."_ Amy snapped back, her face twisted in anger.

"_But you'll die in here!_"

"_Not if you take me with you. You came to rescue me, so rescue me."_

_ "Leave her and take you?"_

"We could take this Amy with us, easy, but, if we do, our Amy has to wait 36 years to be rescued." The Doctor explained rapidly.

"_So I have to choose. Which wife do I want?" _Rory asked softly.

"_She is me. We're both me."_ Amy answered back.

"_You being here is wrong- for a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you. I promised."_ But Amy wasn't listening anymore, she had walked away.

"Rory." The Doctor tried.

"_This is your fault."_

"I'm so sorry, but, Rory-"

"_No, this is your fault! Y-y-you should look at a history book once in a while, see if there's an outbreak of plague or not!"_ Rory yelled.

"That is not how I travel." The Doctor snapped back.

"_Then I do not want to travel with you!"_ Rory screamed and tossed the glasses. The feedback whined again and suddenly they could hear crying.

"Rory, is the timeglass still on? If the link's still active I think I can hear Amy. Our Amy." But there was no answer. Rose hopped down from the jump seat and pulled on her jacket that she had discarded earlier. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To smack a bit of sense into her. She called this existence hell yet she'd make herself go through it again because of what? She's afraid of dyin'? She's not dyin' she's just- she's turnin' left." Rose said, remembering another time when she had to convince someone else to give up their life so the world could be put right again. It had been another stubborn red head back then too. "She's givin' up something horrible for the possibility of something fantastic."

"So you're going to what, go beat that into her?" The Doctor asked, hip leaning against the console, arms crossed, and a stern look on his face.

"She's got a sword and 30 years experience on me." Rose said without really answering the question.

"Rose."

"Doctor." Rose nearly grinned at his exasperated sigh. "She's a survivor, that's what she's been doin' since she got here. Survivin' long enough to be rescued. But she needs to rescue herself this time." Rose thought for a moment then grinned, tongue-in-cheek. "Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You could be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th. Live a lifetime completely alone, runnin' from handbots one moment then live a lifetime with your husband, travellin' through time and space the next."

"You remember that?" The Doctor asked, his stern look gone.

"I got it right, yeah?" Rose grinned wider. Rose sat back down in her usual spot, her legs swinging as she just decided to let Rory handle this one. If anyone could talk some sense into the stubborn Scottish woman, it was Rory.

The Doctor took a couple steps towards Rose then caught her foot deftly on an outward swing. Rose raised an eye brow as the Doctor carefully removed the small, nearly hidden blade from her boot.

"Rose." The Doctor said, another stern look on his face. Rose decided not to point out the hypocrisy of the Doctor right then. River carried a gun 24/7, she was a convicted murderer, had attempted to kill the Doctor and shot up the TARDIS but he was worried about a small blade?

"Doctor, a blade comes in handy when you are constantly traipsing across the unknown universe, or universes in my case, and sometimes people tie you up." The Doctor still held Rose's leg up, his hand supporting the weight of her leg by cupping the heel of her rust-colored, laced up boots. "There's many uses for it other than that. That was the first time I used it to threaten anyone- or anything, a handbot, definitely the first time I thought of usin' it on a handbot." Rose continued, rambling slightly but it had its desired effect. The Doctor once again lost his stern look, placed the small blade back inside her boot, and let go of her foot.

"How often are you tied up exactly?" The Doctor asked, his eyes on the monitor displaying an arguing Rory and older-Amy.

"Doctor, we got arrested on a weekly basis when I was travelin' with you, it didn't get any better just poppin' into places with the dimensional canon." Rose nudged over and the Doctor took the offered seat. His concerned gaze was still on the monitor, his brain probably trying to work on a way through this situation.

"We never really got a chance to talk about that," The Doctor welcomed the small distraction.

"Talk about what?" Rose asked, though she was quite aware of what the Doctor was referring to. They had plenty of time to talk about it, while they were travelling alone, and when Amy and Rory were sleeping, plus dozens of other opportunities. But Rose and the Doctor had become so similar in their treatment of the past. There were glorious, beautiful things to be had in the past, but there was pain and hurt around each corner, and it wasn't worth reliving that fact to chat over where they've been or who with.

"Your dimensional hopping, how long was it?" Those ancient green eyes turned back to her. Rose chewed her thumb nail as she thought it over.

"Couple years, I s'pose." Rose didn't actually have a set time. At the beginning of her travels she could be gone for months and come back to Pete's world only to realize a couple hours or a day had passed. Sometimes she would only be in another world for an hour or two only to come back a week had passed. It had taken a year, linear time in Pete's to force the machine to maintain a strict time progression.

"Two?" The Doctor asked his eyes and tones distracted.

"If I had to guess, closer to four or five." Rose answered, finally earning the Doctor's full attention. "How long was it for you, linearly speaking?"

"Three years, two months, and six days." The Doctor said, without even having to think about it. Rose guessed it had it down to the mere minute but she didn't question him further. His eyes were again on the monitor.

"There was this planet with these giant crystalline caves," Rose found herself saying. "They had these big saber tooth tiger lookin' creatures, bigger than a horse, scared the hell out of me when I stumbled onto the planet and there was a whole group of them, starin' at me from three meters away."

"Kootooths, on the planet Elera." The Doctor clarified, smiling at her.

"They had teeth bigger than my arm! And I had landed in this funny position, all my weight on my right leg and twisted slightly. I was tryin' not to move a muscle but I couldn't maintain my stance and I stumbled forward. I thought I am so dead, fourth trip by the cannon and I was dead. But I stumbled and they made this- this high pitched sound! I was so shocked I fell backwards, right on my bum!" Rose was laughing now and the Doctor's smile was wider, more genuine.

"Kootooths' flight or fight instincts rely heavily on flight. Their speed, strength, and sheer size seem to have eluded them."

"If that's your way of sayin' they are giant chickens, then yes, they are." Rose pulled one of her legs up underneath her.

"Elera had been inhabited by some of the biggest animals in the known universe. But an ice age overtook the planet, killing off most of the plants and other life forms that they depended on for a food source. Kootooths' survived because they are scavengers." The Doctor explained and Rose listened with apt attention.

"So they waited for the big beasts to die of starvation then they ate the carcasses." Rose now understood why their teeth had been longer and thicker than her arm. It takes a lot of power to chew through an animal's hide that had been the size of a building. "That's why they had such long hair too, they adapted to the cold." The Doctor nodded, beaming at her proudly.

"There's nothing bigger on that planet than the Kootooths' but thousands of years of instincts are hard to erase." The Doctor supplied.

"Autonoe, landed there just before I saw you again. That was beautiful." Rose didn't know many of the places she visited. She didn't have the advantage of the TARDIS translating system inside her head. She did have a crude translator device, but it only could translate known languages, which were most languages spoken on Earth and only five alien languages. Autoneo had been inhabited by humans, and they had spoken a language that had been a mixture of Spanish, Italian, and English.

"I went there with Donna!" The Doctor exclaimed in surprise.

"By then we had pretty much locked onto your biochemical signature." Rose explained the seeming coincidence.

"What?" The Doctor's eye brows were raised in shock.

"I wasn't just aimlessly hopping around this universe," Rose explained with a grin. "At first we locked onto my own biochemical signature, just until we could find a sample of yours to use for the machine because I didn't think it'd be too smart bumpin' into myself. The dimensional cannon goes in chronological order though, so it took me a while to get to the proper you. Then I ended up in that bloody other world, the one where you didn't meet Donna Noble. And I got stuck there because the stupid machine believed you dead."

"What did you do?" The Doctor asked, his voice quiet, his eyes not on her anymore.

"Found the TARDIS, it was in the Thames, made them drag her up. She was so quiet I thought she had died when you did, but there was still life in the old girl yet. She tried to talk to me, tried to help, but we couldn't communicate." Rose looked up, didn't mention that she could communicate quite well with the TARDIS now. "Had to make a crude time travelling… jacket. The TARDIS helped with that, she lent me bits and pieces."

"Rose Tyler, you made a time travelling device?" The Doctor's eye brows were raised once again.

"Sort of. It was calibrated to just one day, one small, seemingly insignificant moment in time. And it could only be used by one woman. I would never help invent a time machine two thousand years before it was s'pose to be built." Rose quickly explained. There had been people who tried to get her to change the device, to use the TARDIS in a different way. To go back into time and rewrite history but Rose had refused. There had been only one safe way to go about fixing everything, and that was through Donna Noble.

"But you built a time travelling device with a few bobs and ends from a dying TARDIS. And you built a, what did you call it? Oh, a dimensional cannon. There are only six known species that have done that, in all of time and all of space." The Doctor was fully focused on Rose now, wonder in his voice.

"I had help, with both devices. It's not like I did it on my own, Pete had most of the materials I used. There were tons of brilliant scientists working on the project." Rose shrugged. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was anything besides a shop girl from the Estates.

"You're brilliant." The Doctor said firmly, causing Rose to grin.

"Thank you." They grinned at each other, caught in a silly moment of happiness.

"_Okay, Doctor, two-streams is back on-air. Right, okay, so this is big news. This is temporal earthquake time. I am now officially changing my own future. Hold on to your spectacles. In my past, I saw my future self refuse to help you. I am now changing that future and agreeing. Every law of time says that shouldn't be possible."_ Amy said from the monitor, both her and Rory striding through halls.

"Yes, except sometimes knowing your own future is what enables you to change it, especially if you're bloody minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable." The Doctor explained.

"_So, basically, if you're Amy, then."_ Rory quipped.

"Yes, if anyone could defeat predestiny it's your wife." The Doctor answered.

"_It's not about what I'm doing, it's about who I'm doing it for. I'm trusting you to watch my back, Rory."_ Amy said in a hard voice.

"_Always. You and me, always._" Rory promised instantly.

"_Because here's the deal- you take me, too, in the TARDIS. Me, too."_

"_But that means there'd be two of you, permanently, forever."_ Rory worked out while Rose watched the Doctor shake his head, just a bit.

_"And, that way, we both get to live."_

_ "Two Amys together. C-can that work?"_

"I don't know. It's your marriage." The Doctor said, deflecting, but at Rory's insistence the Doctor let out a sigh as he scratched his head and began moving, his motions clipped. "Perhaps. Maybe if I shunted the reality compensators on the TARDIS, recalibrated the doomsday bumpers, and jettisoned the karaoke bar, yes, maybe, yes. It could do it. The TARDIS could sustain the paradox."

Every warning bell that Rose had in her head was going off, creating a cacophony of noise that wouldn't let her concentrate on just one thing. Thoughts slammed into problems and problems trampled over emotions as Rose shoved herself to her feet and took a step towards the Doctor.

The Doctor moved away from her instantly and Rose stepped up the console, flicking off the speaker phone before grabbing the Doctor by the back of his bracers and pulling him towards her. She knew the Doctor could have twisted out of her hold, she knew he was more solid on his feet than he acted and if he didn't want to be near her, than he wouldn't be.

"Doctor," Rose began softly, but the Doctor eased her grip from his bracers and shook his head. He flipped the speakerphone back on.

"Okay, Amy- past Amy- stand by the door. Future Amy, you too. Future Amy can I borrow your sonic screwdriver? Probe?" The Doctor asked, stumbling over the word probe.

_"It's a screwdriver."_ Older Amy grumbled unhappily, handing over the makeshift device to Rory.

"Rory, sonic it. Double our power. Amy-now, you're our link to Amy-then. We need to get a signal through, and that signal will be a thought. Amy-now and Amy-then, share a thought, something so powerful that it can rip through time. Rory, sonic the vent front. Inside, you'll find three levers and a jumble of wire. That's the regulator valve. After we reroute it, you'll have 10 minutes to get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor explained in a rapid-fire way. Rose stepped back, chewing on her thumb in a bad habit she thought she had broken herself of ages ago.

"_Okay._"

"Pull out the red and green receptors. Reroute the blue into the red and the green into the blue. Leave the red loose, and oh no account, touch anything yellow. Come on, Rory! It's hardly rocket science. It's just quantum physics!"

"_Yes, right, okay, blue into red. Red into green."_

"Yes, yes, yes! And now the levers- throw them in order. And, Amys, start thinking the most important thought you have ever had. Hold it in your head and do not let it go. Lever one." The Doctor ordered.

"_She's doing the macarena."_ Rory said, staring at his wife. "_Our first kiss."_

"Lever two, Rory. Lever three!" The TARDIS sparked violently and both the Doctor and Rose leapt away from it.

Both Amy's were now on the monitors as Rory ran up to his wives and hugged the younger version.

"Oh. Rory, Rory, take the glasses off. You're getting temporal feedback." The console sparked again and the Doctor ran over, pulling Rose away from it even though she had been backing away on her own. "Whoa! Calm down, dear! Rory, Amy, we've created a massive paradox, and the TARDIS hates it. She's still phasing, trying to get out of here. What's the nasty Amy done to you? Just calm down, dear. Hang on in there, eh?" The Doctor spoke quietly, keeping up a constant chatter as he pulled levers and pushed buttons and yanked his hand back when he was shocked. "Rory, you've got eight minutes left. I'm sorry. You're on your own now." The monitors turned to static as feedback whined in the stereos.

"So what are you goin' to do, then? The TARDIS is not goin' to let both of them in here, you're lucky if she sticks around to let even one in now." Rose finally spoke up as she listened to the TARDIS try to dematerialize. She rubbed a hand over the wall, trying to lend comfort to the ship, but she could feel the TARDIS buzzing around in her head, angry. Whether at the Doctor or Amy or any other number of things or people, Rose wasn't quite sure.

"She wasn't going to help us if I didn't agree, you heard her, nothing was going to convince her otherwise." The Doctor answered darkly, refusing to face her as he hopped around the console to keep his ship from leaving his other companions behind.

"What are you goin' to do?" Rose asked again.

"I don't know!" The Doctor snapped, slamming his fist against the console and getting a sharp zap for his temper. The TARDIS was not going to stand for his anger, and neither would Rose.

"Doctor-"

"I don't know Rose! I don't have an answer that is going to make you happy, undoubtedly it will make you question me even more than you already have. Don't give me that look, I can see it in your eyes. I'm the Doctor, just not _your_ Doctor anymore. Clearly not the same man, it's written all over your face every time you look at me." The Doctor snapped his mouth shut forcibly, like he was physically stopping his gob from getting away from him again, which Rose took as he said more than he meant to.

Rose had no idea he felt that way, but she could see the truth in his bitter words. She had been comparing him to her previous Doctors, and sometimes even comparing him to the half-human one she barely got a chance to know. Even after everything she's been through, it was still hard to wrap her mind around regeneration. The same man, but not. A different man, but not. The big stuff and the little stuff changed, but it also remained the same. The Doctor died and a new man walked away, but he was still the Doctor.

He had also said 'your Doctor', like he acknowledged that his previous bodies were hers. It was a silly thing for her mind to get caught up on, she knew that, but a small part of her preened at that.

"You'll always be my Doctor," Rose admitted softly, showing a bit of vulnerability because he had done so first. The Doctor finally turned to her, his eyes dark and unfathomable. He took a step towards her, then another, until he was standing in front of her. He whispered her name so softly if he hadn't been standing right in front of her she wouldn't have heard him. Long fingers grazed her face and Rose reached up, pressing his palm to the side of her face and leaning against the touch.

Rose let out a small laugh when she heard the fighting just outside the TARDIS doors. The Doctor gave her a self deprecating smile before pressing his lips gently against her forehead.

Rose turned away quickly and ran for the door, pushing it open just in time to see Rory carrying Amy. Rose took a couple steps back as the Doctor came up behind her and Rory gently laid Amy on the console room floor.

"Uh, it's just an anesthetic. She'll be fine." The Doctor assessed quickly after placing his coat over Amy. Rory remained bent over his wife and Rose knelt beside him, giving him a proud smile.

"Look at you-" Rose began to say to a red faced Rory, but a slamming door interrupted her. They both turned to look at the Doctor.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked, sitting up straight as he looked between the Doctor and the door behind him.

"I lied to her, Rory." The Doctor said quickly, darkly.

"Doctor?" Older Amy's voice called from the outside.

"There can never be two Amys in the TARDIS, the paradox was too massive." The Doctor explained, his back to the door, which Amy was banging on. The TARDIS made a whining noise, still trying to dematerialize on her own.

"You can't leave her. She'll die." Rory was standing up now, making his way towards the door.

"Doctor, let me in!" Amy was pleading from the outside.

"No, she'll never have existed. When we save our Amy, this future won't have happened." The Doctor lost the bit of darkness in the face of his panicking companion.

"Doctor, please!"

"She happened! She's there!" Rory yelled, looking over at Rose, but she couldn't hold Rory's gaze for long.

"I trusted you!" Amy screamed, still pounding on the door. The Doctor closed his eyes, his hand against the door.

"No, no, no, she's not real." The Doctor shook his head as Rory approached him.

"No, she is real. Let her in." Rory demanded.

"Look, we take this Amy, we lave ours. There can only be one Amy in the TARDIS! Which one do you want?" The Doctor put Rory's hand on the lock. "Your choice."

"This isn't fair. You're turning me into you." Rory whispered, but the anger in his voice seemed to echo in the room. He looked over at Rose, anger and hatred clear in his eyes that never really hid anything.

"Your choice, Rory." The Doctor said, pulling Rory's angry look away from Rose and back onto himself.

The Doctor turned and went to the console. Rose felt the strongest urge to run, she didn't want to hear the resulting conversation between Rory and the woman he had to leave behind, the woman who was still his wife, and who he still clearly loved. Rose pushed herself to her feet, but forced herself to remain in the console room. Her mother's words ringing in her ears.

"_And you'll keep on changin'. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walkin' through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. And she's not Rose Tyler. Not any more. She's not even human."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So there it is! Chapter 11, hope you liked it and thank you so much for your encouraging reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed Chapter 10!


	12. Chapter 12

"Okay let's think this out," Rose spoke mostly to herself as there was no one around, but it was a small comfort anyways, to talk something through out loud. "Stuck in a hotel made to resemble something from the 80's on earth, with rooms full of your worst fear. Monster chasin' you, findin' you because of that fear? Perhaps it can smell fear, that's a bit terrifyin'. But we're all scared, so why does it choose the ones it does? What makes them so different from the rest of us? Why aren't I bein' chased right now? I'm a bit scared, separated from the group, wanderin' 'round a rubbish hotel that's growin' creepier by the minute." Rose stopped outside of a door without a number on it. Her fingers itched to open it but she purposefully strode on.

"Stay away from the doors," Rose reminded herself, mostly just to hear a bit of noise besides the hum of muzak that seemed to be crawling underneath her skin and making her whole body itchy. All together it was quite an unpleasant feeling and she was really wishing to run into someone. The Ponds, Rita, the Doctor- anyone really.

"Enough of that, you travelled alone for nearly two years, jumping from one dimension to the next, endin' up in foreign places, sometimes much scarier than this and you were always alone. This is no different." Except it was. Something was hunting them down, one by one, and putting their pictures up on a trophy wall with their worst nightmare written beneath their name. Rose wasn't even quite positive what her worst fear was. Being alone? Being stuck in a war zone again? Watching the people she loved die while she was helpless to do anything about it? Slowly being eaten and digested and thrown up only to have the whole thing repeated again by a Hemorrid from Torres IV?

Rose's hand was on a door knob, turning it slowly when she snapped back into herself. She let go of the door knob and jumped back, staring at the blank plaque on the door that should have had a room number on it. Did she not even warrant a number?

"Bit rude, that." Rose rolled her neck, trying to ignore the feeling of not being in control of her own body. She spun on her heel and walked briskly down the hall but it ended and she was left facing a door with no number. "Oi! Stop this right now, I'm not openin' the bloody door!" Rose spun around but she was faced with the numberless door once again. Her throat felt dry and her heart hammered within her chest as something crawled over her skin.

Right. Creepy ever-changing hallway that clearly wanted to her to go into that specific room aside, at least she wasn't in that dining area with the dummies. Now that had been truly awful.

"Lizzie Boden had an axe.

Gave her mother 40 whacks.

When she'd seen what she had done,

She gave her father 41.

1,2,3,4-"

Rose's words caught in her throat, barely a breath escaped her mouth when she realized what she had been singing. A slapping and crunching noise behind her drew her focus back to the door, her hand was on the knob again but she realized something too late. She was on the other side of the door, she had somehow entered the room and hadn't even been aware of it.

_Praise him._

A noise came from behind her, something completely inhuman. A sound that made her skin crawl and her heart slam against her ribs.

"Yesterday, upon the stair

I met a man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

I wish, I wish he'd go away…"

A growl, closer to her. Something gasping for breath, was that her? No, it was always behind her. A struggling sound, muffled by something blocking the airway. Rose had heard a noise like that once, a gasping, rattling death noise that came from blood in the lungs and throat.

"When I came home last night at three

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall

I couldn't see him there at all!"

Rose pressed her forehead against the fake wooden door, her hand clutching the door knob until it gave a groan in protest. _Praise him.__ T_he death rattle grew in sound behind her, only accompanied by the soft growling that was ever coming closer.

"Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door

Last night I saw upon the stair

A little man who wasn't there."

Rose slid down to her knees, her hand still gripping the door knob as hot tears flowed down her cheeks. Scalding breath ghosted over the back of her neck as she whispered out the last two lines.

"He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away."

Rose turned her head and met her nightmare. A scream tore out of her throat without any warning to her.

"Rose! Rose! Look at me Rose, it's not real, it can't hurt you!" Someone was pulling her out of the room, tugging her uncooperating body out into the hall but Rose couldn't look away. "Rose, concentrate on me, remember what the Doctor said? The things in the rooms aren't real, they can't hurt us if we don't let them."

But Rose couldn't look away from the hulking beast in front of her. It was a large wolf, or at least at some point it had been a wolf. It was missing chunks of black, mangy fur in places and it was a twisted, monsterous-looking thing now. Too misshapen to ever be compared to a real wolf. Something thick and black oozed from its muzzle, which was wet with blood of the thing, the person it had been consuming. Pitch black eyes stared at her with just one feeling- hatred. It wanted to consume Rose like it had consumed that person behind it, that one that was still alive, a mangled mess of something that's every living moment was pure hell.

"Rose!" The door was slammed shut before a face came in close to hers, taking up all available space.

Rose let out a strangled gasp, sucking in breath as she pushed away from the person and struggled to the other side of the hall, only stopping her frantic scrambling when her back hit the wall. She clamped her mouth shut on any words that wished to spill out without her consent and slammed her head back into the wall.

"Rose, stop, please stop." A gentle hand worked itself behind her head, cupping the back of her skull so she could no longer hit it against the wall without injuring him. "Deep breaths, that's right, you're going to be just fine."

"Rory," Rose was finally able to wheeze out, her eyes snapping open and meeting those of one Rory Williams. "Rory." Rose said again, more firmly this time. Rory removed his hand and scooted back to give her some room. "I'm okay- I-I-I just need a moment." Rose turned her face away and furiously scrubbed at her cheeks before pushing her thumbs into her eyes until she saw dots.

"You saved Rita," Rory finally spoke up. Rose turned her attention back to him, her eyes snagging on the door behind him for a moment, but only a moment.

"Oh that's brilliant of me, don't remember doin' that mind, but still, all the same." Rose was nearly proud of the lightness of her tone, as if she hadn't just had a meltdown moments prior. Rory even gave her a small, encouraging smile as he pushed to his feet and helped her up.

"It was after her, she must have gone into her own room at some point, but it changed direction at the last moment." Rory looked like he regretted the way this topic had gone but Rose only gave a small glance to the door behind him.

"Found something more interestin', fantastic." Rose rubbed her eyes, forcing certain words that wanted to escape her throat back down as she tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to find some semblance of balance within herself.

"What was that?" Rory asked, as if he couldn't help himself.

"A wolf." Rose answered honestly.

"That thing was a wolf?"

"It was a bad wolf," Rose would have laughed if she didn't feel like crying. Or laughing. Or screaming. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she felt an all-consuming peace slide over her. Her head tilted to the side as she stared at the door, her door, her blank door with a monster inside. Like the monster inside herself and it was awake now. Awoken by fear and something trying to overtake her mind.

"You alright? Not wanting to worship anyone, are you?" Rory asked a bit worriedly.

"What did you just say?" Rose questioned back, something on the edge of her mind that was screaming at her to notice, but just then the Doctor came running around the corner and nearly crashed into her.

"Rose!" The Doctors arms wrapped around Rose, crushing her to him with surprising strength. Rose let herself sink into his embrace and felt that peace fog up her brain again. Praise him. Rose pushed away from the Doctor, shaking her head and looking around at everyone.

"A creature that wants you to worship it wouldn't pray on fear." Rose said, making the Doctor's happy smile slip away. "It's what that fear forces you to do. What do you do when you get scared? How are you not scared Rita, what have you done? The rest of us aren't scared because this is hardly the scariest situation any of us have been in, but you're a medical student from the middle 21st century. What do you hold onto when you get scared?"

"My faith." Rita answered, her eyes going a bit wide as she finally understood what was going on. "It's robbing me of my faith."

"No, it's takin' that faith and turnin' it towards itself." Rose amended. "Howard's faith was conspiracies."

"That external forces controlled the world. Joe had dice cufflinks and a chain with a horsehoe. He was a gambler. Gamblers believe in luck, an intangible force that helps them win or lose. Gibbis has rejected any personal autonomy and is waiting for the next batch of invaders to oppress him and tell him what to do. They all believe there's something guiding them, about to save them." The Doctor continued, pacing up and down the hall as he explained, catching on to Rose's theory. He was also doing quite a good job of distracting them all from the noises coming from the door without numbers.

"That's what it replaces. Every time someone was confronted with their most primal fear, they fell back on their most fundamental faith." Rose continued, speaking to the Doctor's back as his shoulders sagged.

"And all this time, I have been telling you to dig deep, find the thing that keeps you brave. I made you expose your faith, show them what they needed." The Doctor said softly, sounding deeply ashamed.

"But why us? Why are we here?" Rory asked, brows furrowed.

"It doesn't want you. That's why it kept showing you a way out. You're not religious or superstitious, so there's no faith for you to fall back on. It wants her." The Doctor pointed to Amy.

"Me?" Amy scoffed. "Why?"

"Your faith in me." The Doctor answered, sounding both in awe and ashamed. "That's what brought us here."

"But Rose has a room too," Amy countered.

"But why do they lose their faith before they die and start worshipping it?" Rory interrupted.

"It needs to convert the faith into a form it can consume. Faith is an energy, the specific emotional energy the creature needs to live, which is why, at the end of her note, Lucy said-"

"Praise him." Amy and Rose said at the same time.

"Exactly." The Doctor and Rory then exchanged a frantic look.

"No. Oh, please, no." Rory shook his head as footsteps slowly approached across the ceiling and the glass chandeliers rattled.

"Run!" The Doctor shouted and they took off down the hall. Rose could feel the pull of the creature but the Other inside her mind stretched and growled, clearing her mind for her as the Doctor and Rory dragged a struggling Amy into a room.

There was a small red headed little girl sitting on a suitcase and staring out the window. She gave a cursory glance over her shoulder at everyone in the room before looking back out the window. Amy fell to her knees, crying.

"Doctor, it's happening. It's changing me." Amy whispered. Rose fought with Rita even as her head felt like it would split from the fight raging on inside of her. Rita was struggling to get out of the room as Rory pressed himself up against the rattling door.

"It's changing my thoughts."

"I can't save you from this. There's nothing I can do to stop this." The Doctor whispered.

"What?"

"I stole your childhood, and now I've led you by the hand to your death. But the worst thing is, I knew. I knew this would happen. This is what always happens." The door slammed open and the minotaur pounded in. "Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain, because I wanted to be adored. Look at you. The glorious Pond. The girl who waited for me. I'm not a hero. I really am just a madman in a box. And it's time we saw each other as we really are."

The minotaur groaned and Rita slumped over in Rose's arms, passing out cold. It's huge head turned to Rose, letting out a mournful noise as Rose slowly lowered Rita to the ground.

"Amy Williams. It's time to stop waiting." The creature stumbled out of the room and Rose felt her feet following after him. Her mind was her own again even as the Other settled back in. Rose watched the creature collapse against the wall then slide down as the lights flickered off. Rose knelt down carefully by the minotaur as the Doctor knelt next to her.

"I severed the food supply, sacrificing her faith in me, gave you the space to die." The Doctor explained softly, caressing the creatures face, giving comfort where he could. The hotel around them peeled away, revealing the real interface of the place.

"What is it, a minotaur or an alien? Or an alien minotaur. That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning." Amy said as the Doctor stood up and walked over to her. Rose pressed her hand softly against the creatures chest and his hoofed hand rested over her hand.

"I mean, it's both. Actually, yeah, here we go." The Doctor walked over to the computer system in the room. "A distant cousin of the nimon. They descend on planets and set themselves up as Gods to be worshipped, which is fine, until the inhabitants get all secular and advanced enough to build bonkers prisons."

"Correction, prisons in space." Rory interjected, looking out at window with Rita, who was awake now and looking much more like herself. Rose touched the minotaur's face gently, it was like rough sewn leather beneath the pads of her fingers. He felt ancient, so very old and so very alone.

"Where are the guards?" Amy asked.

"No need for any. It's all automated. It drifts through space, snatching people with belief systems, and converts their faith into food for the creature." The Doctor answered.

"They didn't want just me, so you must believe in some god, or someone, or they'd have shown you the door, too. So what do Time Lords pray to?" Amy asked and Rose looked up to meet the Doctor's eyes.

"According to the in-flight recorder the program developed glitches. It got stuck on the same setting. The fears from the people before us weren't tidied away." The Doctor said instead of actually answering Amy with a straight answer for once.

"And you? What do you believe in?" Amy asked, turning towards Rose with her arms crossed against her chest.

"Myself." Rose answered honestly. "I've always had faith in myself, even at the worst of times I always believed I could get myself out of any situation I got into in the first place." A lot of that had to do with her dimensional travelling years, but even when she had been younger, growing up on the council estate you really had to depend on yourself for a lot of things. Rose had faith in her friends, she believed that given the chance the Doctor or Jack, or even Rory and Amy would help her out but she had faith in herself if they didn't come. But it was hard to believe in yourself when you had a monster living in the deepest parts of your mind.

"What's it saying?" Amy asked as the minotaur made a growling noise, turning towards Rose.

"An ancient creature drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space, through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature death would be a gift and accepted." Rose answered, even though the question had been aimed at the Doctor. The minotaur was looking at Rose with bright blue eyes and Rose had the feeling the minotaur wasn't just speaking about itself.

"Then sleep well." The Doctor said softly, though he was giving Rose an indecipherable look. "I wasn't talking about myself." The Doctor translated for the creature right before it slipped away.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

Rose carefully studied the back of the Doctor. He was bent over the console, his head bowed and his whole countenance looked about three seconds from collapsing in on himself. She saw a lot of this Doctor's back, could tell what mood he was in by the shift of his shoulders or the straightness of his spine.

"Do you remember when your mum called us barmy, living this sort of life? Dangerous, she said, she hated it." The Doctor finally spoke up. Rose shifted uncomfortably before letting out a soft breath, reminding herself that her mum was alive and well, trapped away from her forever, but she had Pete and little Tony, who probably wasn't so little anymore.

"You told her that was just the bits in between." Rose answered around the lump in her throat. The Doctor turned then, finally facing her and it was his turn to study her face. Something must have given her away, that this was a hard subject for her, because he was suddenly striding over and pulling her into a tight hug.

"Doesn't seem to be just the bits in between now. Seems to be every bloody stop that I nearly lose one of you, if not all of you." The Doctor admitted softly against her temple. Rose slipped her arms underneath his jacket and gripped the back of his cotton shirt in a tight grasp.

"Not your fault, ya know." Rose's voice was muffled due to her face being buried in the Doctor's chest, and she felt the vibrations of a chuckle that didn't quite make it out of his mouth.

"Glorious Ponds, couldn't be the death of them, not me. I had to let them live their lives." The Doctor explained after a moment of silence. Rose inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and letting the Doctor's presence soothe away any lingering effect from the hell hotel.

"Is that why you dropped Rita off at home? Instead of askin' her to travel with us? She was really quite brilliant, think she would have liked to pop about the universe for a spell." Rose felt the Doctor's arms tighten around her, just for a moment, before he released her all together and stepped back.

"You Rose Tyler are just- brilliant." The Doctor hopped around the console, but he didn't press any levers, didn't send them flying off through space and time on another adventure. "This body has a habit of-"

"Mopin'?" Rose asked with a grin, following him around the console.

"Time Lords do not mope!" The Doctor exclaimed in mock offense.

"Time Lords might not have, but you do." Rose retorted back, earning her a stern look.

"Fine, for a lack of a better word, we'll call it moping. But you, brilliant, fantastic, lovely-" The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and spun her around, causing her to let out a breathless laugh. "Rose Tyler, you just won't let me do that."

"Mopin's rubbish, did my fair share of it, and all I really ever got was a headache. Something bad happens, you pull yourself up and you keep movin'." Rose tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, noting the long length of the strand. More time must have passed since she was living with Jack then she initially thought. "Where are we goin' next?"

"Nowhere. The TARDIS needs some maintenance, nothing too serious, just a couple things I've been- well, putting off for a while now. Could use a rest, yeah? Bit of peace and quiet." There was something on the Doctor's face, an emotion that Rose couldn't quite read, and she tilted her head, trying to understand why the Doctor seemed so hesitant about this.

"I'll make us a cuppa then, yeah?" Rose asked, because when in doubt, make tea. It must have been the right thing to say because the Doctor gave her a brilliant, albeit manic, grin. Rose returned it and strode off to the galley.

After the incident with the monster-wolf Rose didn't think she was up just yet for another adventure. She also didn't think she'd be getting a good night's rest anytime soon. Repairs with her other two Doctor's meant long hours spent in the TARDIS console room, with the Doctor telling her history of planets and people and things, while Rose listened with rapt attention, interrupting continually with questions.

Rose wasn't sure what repairs in the vortex meant with this Doctor though. He was even more secretive than her last three, including the half-Time Lord Doctor. Rose didn't think it was fair to make the Doctor be honest with her when she was hiding a couple things from him, but she thought maybe it was about time both of them talked a couple things through.

"Doctor, what happened with River?" Rose asked, deciding the best approach would just to be outright about it. She settled down on the floor by the Doctor's outstretched legs. The rest of him was inside the TARDIS console. Rose placed both mugs of tea to her right, so the Doctor wouldn't accidently hit them with his long limbs.

"Oh you know, she grew up with Amy and Rory, was actually Amy's best mate growing up, didn't show up to their wedding though. The Ponds were sick of waiting around, did something a bit silly to get my attention, and of course I couldn't resist an invitation-"

"Couldn't just, I don't know, pick up your mobile?" Rose asked, earning a tap of the Doctor's booted foot against her thigh.

"She pulled a gun out on me." The Doctor said.

"Of course she did," Rose said quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly because the Doctor's tinkering stopped while Rose rubbed her forehead. She really didn't mean to be so harsh about River, she really didn't, but she also didn't like the fact that the woman seemed to aim a gun at the Doctor quite often. "I thought you hated guns?"

"You carried a great, big giant one across dimensions!"

"Because of daleks, and I only threatened some stupid kids that were stealin' from a shop with it, just the once, wasn't gonna do anything with it." Rose grumped.

"Anyways," The Doctor tapped his foot against Rose's thigh again and she grabbed his ankle to keep him from doing it again. "She wanted to go kill Hitler." He paused, as if waiting for Rose to interrupt, but Rose wasn't going to touch that. "I told her a very clever lie about guns not workin' in the TARDIS."

"And let me guess, she fired the gun?" Rose asked, which was met by silence. For a moment at least.

"She shot my TARDIS, she shot the console." The Doctor said, sounding extremely offended. The TARDIS gave a soft whine, as if she were trying to speak her offense too. Rose reached up and touched the console. "We-kind of, just a bit- saved Hitler. Accidentally. Rory punched him though, and shoved him in a cupboard. Mels, Amy's best mate, she ended up getting shot, by Hitler. She regenerated."

"River can regenerate? So she's a proper Time Lord? Time Lady? Time- person?" Rose asked, causing the Doctor to push himself out from inside the console and give her a look.

"Do you want to hear this story or not?" The Doctor asked, a bit snippily, but Rose just grinned and slipped his cuppa closer to him. The Doctor sat up and took a hesitant sip, staring at her over the rim before taking a larger drink of it, smacking his lips rather rudely at the end. "She tried to shoot me, but I took the bullets out of the gun. Now don't look like that, it's not her fault, she was programmed to kill me. She uh- poisoned me. Went into the TARDIS to make a plan while Rory and Amy went after their newly regenerated daughter. You were there, not you exactly, emergency interface you, you were a bit rubbish. Couldn't regenerate, no cure- looked bit grim there. There was a robot worked by tiny people, did I mention that yet? Yes, well, they were there to kill Hitler, but we kind of- got in the way a bit. Then they identified Melody Pond, thought they'd get her instead for killing me. Learned The Silence isn't the species, it is a religious order or movement."

"Get back to the you dyin' by poison bit." Rose demanded, realizing she had a tight grip on his ankle still and she pulled her hand away to grab her mug.

"She used all her regenerative energy in one go, to save me. Worked out quite well, because here I am." The Doctor motioned grandly, nearly spilling the rest of his tea in the process.

"And that's all?" Rose asked, eye brows raised.

"No, of course not. When is that ever all? Got a message on the psychic paper, please save me from the monsters. I really meant to pick you up, who's better at saving people from monster than the big bad wolf?" The Doctor asked and Rose swallowed thickly, looking down at her mostly empty mug.

"Little kid calls for help across the universe; of course you go runnin' to help." Rose deflected.

So the Doctor told her about George, and how George's mum couldn't have kids, how it didn't add up. Then they got sucked into the cupboard. Anything that scared little George was put into the cupboard, and he created a whole world. He needed the acceptance of his dad, even though he wasn't from Earth, that's all he needed. Two people who wanted a child so badly, heard by a little alien orphan.

"All in a days work." Rose said with a grin as she cut out frayed wires and put new ones in their places. The Doctor was underneath the console, continually getting shocked and cursing in different languages.

"Speaking of day, you should get some rest. Been up for near a day now, and you humans-" The Doctor was just about to go on a rant about the wastefulness of sleeping, though he was always the one reminding her to rest. Rose stood up and stretched, she was exhausted, but she knew she wouldn't sleep well. Either way, she did need a shower.

"Yes, waste half our lives sleepin', I know I know." Rose made her way down the hall and to her bedroom.

Rose stripped out of her clothes and hopped into the shower. There were a lot of things she needed to tell the Doctor, but she had grown so use to keeping things close to herself that it was hard to talk anything out. That hadn't just started with the Doctor either, she had been doing it her entire life. Don't talk about her mums string of never ending boyfriends, don't talk about Jimmy Stone's infidelity, don't talk about how bored the relationship with Mickey Smith made her, don't talk about her feelings with the Doctor, don't talk about being from another universe, don't tell anyone your boyfriend is half an alien- on and on. It didn't help with Torchwood either, everything was secrecy there. She was constantly keeping up a string of lies.

Rose found herself listening to a ring tone as she held her mobile up to her ear.

"How's my favorite pair doing?" Jack's smooth voice questioned, immediately making the tightness in her chest loosen.

"We've just settled down for some repairs in the vortex." Rose answered, smiling as she lay back on her bed. She was in her dressing gown, hair still wet, but she didn't care. "How longs it been?"

"About two years." Jack chuckled at Rose's gasp. "I'm guessing it's been even longer for you, and don't start feeling bad Rose, you can't pick the time you call me. Time doesn't matter much to me anyways." Rose was standing in front of her mirror now, staring at her face, tilting it left and right as she pulled on a strand of hair. "But repairs, now that brings back some good memories with old blue eyes. Oh Rosie, he was good looking, now wasn't he? Didn't see it at first, couldn't understand why a girl that looked like you, full of energy and life, hung around with an old, jaded soldier, but it just took a bit of time to see it."

"Are you flirtin' with me, Jack Harkness?" Rose questioned, smiling despite the pit in her stomach.

"Always, sweetheart." Jack said sweetly, making both of them laugh. "You okay?"

"Jack, remember when that Palthazar critter spit up that toxic goo all over us? We had to get full medical exams to make sure it was out of our systems." Jack made a noncommittal noise and Rose felt her heart speed up. "Was there anything more in my exam? You told me I had a full bill of health, couldn't be a healthier person on the planet. I thought you were just teasin', but you weren't, were you?"

"No, Rosie, no I wasn't teasing, I was being truthful." Jack let out a soft sigh. "I meant to tell you, really, but things just kept popping up and then you were gone. It's not like it's bad, just- different."

"I'm not agin', am I?" Rose asked after a moment of silence.

"It's not that you're not aging, you are, but there's something inside of you that gets triggered when you're hurt and it's like pushing a big restart button. From as far as I could tell, you age, get wounded, and everything in your body gets pushed back to your early twenties." Jack explained as Rose ran light fingers over her cheek. "I don't really know anything more, sorry, I'll try and figure it out, but I'm not a doctor or a scientist, and I took your results away from the two that are."

"You trust Tosh and Owen though. Well, you trust Tosh, and despite being a prat, Owen is a doctor, he's not going to go around sharin' my medical records." Rose turned away from the mirror and leaned against the counter.

"No, probably not, I guess it's hard to share secrets when you're just so use to keeping them." Jack mused quietly and Rose sucked in a deep breath, before letting out a soft laugh. "You should talk to the Doc about this Rose, he'd probably know what's going on a lot better than me, but I'm guessing it's from the whole Bad Wolf episode you had. You loved me so you brought me back to life. Only makes sense as a being of infinite power you could extend your own life to match that of, say, the last of a race that has a habit of living a long time." Rose swallowed down the denial, Jack knew and it was safe to talk about it with him.

"I didn't- I didn't think of it that way. Bloody hell." Rose grumbled, running a hand over her face. Jack laughed in her ear, a happy sound.

"Go talk to him, I bet he's already noticed anyways."

"He's been a bit preoccupied lately."

"Rose, it's you, he's noticed." Jack deadpanned. "Give me a ring anytime." They said their goodbyes and Rose hung up.

Rose changed into some pink and green jim jam bottoms and a black vest before taking a deep breath and making her way back out to the console room. She wondered about the proper way to go about asking someone if they had noticed their travelling companion had turned immortal. She thought the best way was just to spit it out.

"Oh no, no, Rose Tyler, you go right back to your room and get some rest. You might think I haven't noticed, but I have, you haven't been getting enough sleep as it is and you can't go days without it, no matter how impressive you think you've gotten." The Doctor said, coming up the stairs to meet her before she could even step foot into the console room.

"I am impressive," Rose quipped back but the Doctor just gave her a stern look. "I'm not agin' right, am I?" The Doctor looked shocked and then he narrowed his eyes, wringing his hands out in front of him.

"Not for a human, no." The Doctor said slowly.

"That's why you won't let me use the nanogenes." Rose said suddenly. "Whenever I get hurt and go to the infirmary, you always yell out 'don't use the nanogenes Rose!' Yeah?"

"Oh- oh, yes, I guess I did do that. Clever girl, you are." The Doctor studied her face, his brow furrowed before he took a step closer and cupped her cheek. "You're going to be alright, Rose. It's not like every time you scrap a knee or get a paper cut you'll go back to being twenty again, and you are aging, albeit at a vastly slower rate than a normal girl from the 21st century should, but you've never been much for normalcy, have you?" Rose grinned a bit and leaned into his touch.

"Doctor, do you remember how I use to black out when I first got here?" Rose asked and watched the Doctor nod, though he looked distracted as he ran his thumb soothingly over the apple of her cheek. "After Idris- after the TARDIS put herself in my body, she moved me to a younger version of myself. It was when- when I came back for you, with the daleks. That was me, now. The TARDIS, she took my younger self and she tucked her into a deep place in my mind to keep me safe. I'm- oh god, I'm muckin' this all up." Rose shook her head and looked down.

"No, I understand. You had all of time in your little human head, but it wasn't all of the TARDIS, not like when she was stuck in Idris-form. She would have compressed you to death within an instant, that is why she took you out, and the only safe place was another version of yourself. So you remember what happened then, eh?" The Doctor gave her a bit of a grin and Rose hid her face behind her hands, laughing softly even as she felt her face burning.

"I kind of claimed you for my own, didn't I?" She peeked at him through her fingers to see his grin widen.

"Well, I kind of was yours, in that body- wasn't I?" They stared at each other in shock for an instant and the Doctor stuttered out a few words that sounded like a mixture of a couple different languages, like he had forgotten how to speak English. Rose pressed her hand against her mouth to keep her laughter inside.

"You kissed me!" Rose couldn't help teasing him, it seemed to be her default mode now. "You made a doctor joke and you kissed me, you are so rubbish, I can't believe I was dyin', burnin' from the inside out and you choose that moment to make a doctor joke!" The Doctor was bright red and he was trying to duck around her, but as tired as she was, she was still right quick and dodged in front of him, her fingers tickling his sides. "You are so full of it!"

"You love it!" The Doctor finally ducked around her, but he didn't run away as she expected, no, he retaliated with digging his fingers into her sides and she let out a peel of laughter as she tried to fold in on herself.

"Let me go, you barmy alien!" Rose squealed out, trying to twist out of his grasp, but he was surprisingly resilient.

"Admit it, Rose Tyler, admit that you love me!" The Doctor's fingers instantly stopped their slow torture and they both became still, except for Rose's gasping breathes. She knew this was one of those turning points, where things go could extremely awkward for them. She didn't want him to disappear into the confines of the TARDIS and then come out acting like everything was great, but she could tell he had distanced himself from her already. It looked like she had a long life ahead of her, and she wanted to spend it with him, whether he had any feelings towards her or not, and it wouldn't do to let him start pushing her away.

Rose used her rusty Torchwood training and hooked her foot behind the Doctor's leg and pulled. He went down with a thud and Rose sat on his back, beaming down at him.

"So how old am I really? I mean, in Earth years that is, not counting the whole aging backwards thing whenever I'm seriously injured. De-generatin'? That a thing? You told me before Jack was made immortal that by his time, humans had done a fairly good job at slowin' down the whole agin' thing anyways. Then we were bein' chased and got a little off subject." Rose looked down at the Doctor, his face turned to the side and giving her a proper glare, but he didn't shuck her off.

"You're 31 Rose," The Doctor answered, looking like he was about to go on a long winded speech, but Rose cut him off.

"I hit my 30 mark and you didn't think to tell me? That's a big year for humans, you know? You didn't even bother to get me a cake." Rose was not pouting, not even a bit, no matter what her face might look like.

"I took you to that party on Teldaga!" The Doctor said, sounding offended.

"You didn't tell me it was for my birthday." Rose shot back.

"I didn't, did I?" The Doctor shifted slightly and Rose moved to sit beside him, not on him. The Doctor flipped over and laid on his back, his arms pillowing his head as he looked up at the high vaulted ceiling of the TARDIS. "I am a bit rubbish, aren't I?"

"A bit," Rose sniffed, earning another glare. "Doctor, what was the kiss about? Because I asked Idris if she was goin' to kiss me to transfer herself to me, but she said that was a whole different story, and then I was in my younger selves body."

"Rose, you were dying." The Doctor sat up, suddenly looking serious. "Taking the time energy out of you wasn't a problem, but you would have still been dying and there was nothing in the universe that could have undone the damage your body had been put through." The Doctor swallowed several times, looking down at his hands as Rose tugged on her earring and tried to think things through.

"Takin' the time vortex inside yourself wouldn't have forced you to regenerate, would it?" Rose asked suddenly.

"No, I mean it could have, if I had held onto it, but it was only in me for a couple seconds, then back into the TARDIS, no harm done at all. Well, a little harm, a little bit of harm, but nothing that a sleeping coma couldn't cure." The Doctor looked at Rose as she thought everything through.

"I- I always thought you gave up your life for me, I knew that, but you did more than that, didn't you? It's like what River did for you, givin' up all her regenerations to sort you out. You could have continued on in that body if I wasn't so stupid." The Doctor moved forward and cupped her face between his cool hands, making her look at him.

"Rose, you saved me. There would have been no coming back from that situation, I couldn't press that button but the daleks would have killed me, no walking away from it. But you didn't just save me Rose, you saved the Earth, the entire universe, and you didn't even hesitate. I always hesitate, I always think of myself, selfish old man that I am, but not you, you never care about the consequences to yourself as long as you're helping others." The Doctor sounded a bit bitter by the end, but he didn't let her question him as he continued on. "But that- that wasn't even a choice for me Rose Tyler." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, so softly that Rose felt every ounce of worry leave her body.

"There's one more thing," Rose said hesitantly, earning a chuckle from the Doctor against her forehead as he shifted slightly, leaning to press his forehead to hers. "Oh shut up you. There's ah- something, there's- in my head Doctor." Rose tried.

"There's something in your head?" The Doctor asked, trying to piece together her broken sentences. Rose took a deep breath and moved back a bit, looking down and tracing her fingers over the Doctor's hand. She just kept waiting for the Other the stretch itself awake, but it stayed silent.

"I think it's left over from the Bad Wolf incident, I'm not sure though, it could be from a number of different things. I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure it's a bit of Bad Wolf left over, I think it's just been dormant until I crossed over between dimensions. I think it's the reason why the Silence never worked on me, they were- they were almost afraid of me. They couldn't get into my head because there was already something in there." Rose explained and had to forcibly clench her teeth together from continuing on her ramble.

"Are you afraid of it?" The Doctor asked softly. Rose nodded, a small jerk of her head, as if she was frightened that if she acknowledged it any longer it would wake up. "I could run some tests to, if you'd like, but I don't think she's anything to be afraid of Rose." Hazel eyes met green ones.

"How could you know that?" Rose wondered, causing a small smile to flit across the Doctor's young looking face.

"Because if she is a bit of the Bad Wolf, then she was created from you and the TARDIS. You love everyone you come into contact with, and the TARDIS would never do anything to harm you, so it only stands to reason that something created out of two entities with such strong feelings that the bit of Bad Wolf would be nothing but good also." The Doctor said reassuringly. Rose took a deep breath and thought that through, it sounded right. "Do you feel her right now?"

"Yes, but- I think she's sleepin'?" Rose bit her lip, because she wasn't all that sure.

"And when is she active?" The Doctor asked, his hand turning over so she could trace the inside of his palm now.

"When I'm in danger." Rose smiled a bit, causing the Doctor to smile back.

"I could do some tests, if you'd like, but I believe she's apart of you, just another aspect of Rose Tyler, defender of Earth." Rose's smile bloomed fully as she shifted forward for a proper hug. She misjudged the distance and they ended up sprawled out on the floor, laughing together. "Anything else then?" Rose made a noncommittal sound as she rested her head against the Doctor's chest, letting the double heartbeat start to lull her to sleep. "Rose?"

"Hmm?" Rose asked, not realizing she had closed her eyes.

"Are you falling asleep? You have a bed, a very good one, made from the…" Rose drifted off to sleep with the steady thrum of the Doctors double heartbeat, the comforting hum of the TARDIS, and that never ceasing gob of his.

It became lighter after that. The trouble did seem to be the bits in between from there. The Doctor even made her a little machine for her room, so she would know the passing of time by Earth-linear. Three months had passed since she had fallen asleep against him. She slept more than four and half hours for the first time in years, since her Doctor was wiped from existence. She had woken up in a make-shift bed in the corner of the console room, full of soft blankets and fluffy pillows. Rose didn't know if it was the Doctor who had done it or the TARDIS, but she thanked them both silently.

They would go out onto an adventure. They would come back, hours or sometimes days later, and Rose would pop off for a shower and change, make them both some food and then they would eat together. The Doctor would tinker and talk and Rose would gradually fall asleep, only to wake up in her bed.

They were on a small little planet for the Festum Luminum, or the Festival of Lights. The little planet of Delgado had three suns, giving it a never ending source of light. Except once a year when the surrounding planets blocked out the suns and the people of Delgado enjoyed twelve hours of darkness. It had been a terrifying time, the Doctor told Rose, until they realized it was a fantastic reason to throw a party.

So the towns people and tourists got together and thus came the Festum Luminum. Rose and the Doctor had been shuffled off into different huts, separating the men and woman was a part of the festivities. Rose was offered several dresses as they wove flowers that only bloomed one time a year. They were supposed to glow softly pink in her hair, and the simple white dress they put her in glowed at the hem.

Rose felt excitement bubbling up inside her. The last trip had been hard, the TARDIS had taken them into a war zone and even though they had helped accomplish a meeting for peace, it had taken a lot of scrubbing to get the silver blood out of her hair. Rose could tell the Doctor had felt particularly retched about that trip, and that's why he took her here. Nothing bad had ever happened during the Festival of Lights, the Doctor had assured her.

Everything slowly went dim and then dark. There was an excited hush that rippled through the crowd before a soft glow started up. Even within the hut, it was still beautiful. Each woman had braided their hair with flowers, or wound them around their necks, ankles, or wrists. Each dress had a different level of luminosity and soft globes tucked into the top of the hut gave off extra light.

Cora, a young woman that Rose had instantly befriend, popped up in front of her, glowing paint decorating her face and the skin not covered by her white shorts and shirt. She held up different paints and Rose picked a few before closing her eyes and letting the other woman paint her.

Flowers and paints and other bits and bobs that had different levels of luminosity were handed out to everyone before they all filed out of the hut. The men were waiting out in the field, all of them dressed down and free of any lights.

Rose watched the annual tradition ensue. Women greeted men with their glowing flowers or paints and the men bowed their heads, accepting the gifts with smiles and laughter. Rose walked through the crowd, handing out her items to those who hadn't been chosen yet.

Rose saw the Doctor nearly immediately. The people of this planet all stood around her height, about 5'5, and the men were built, but the Doctor was tall and willowy and the people of this planet had a great fascination with him. He was surrounded by a group of women, perhaps half a dozen, all vying to place their flower crown upon his head, or decorate his bared skin with their paint.

The Doctor's boots were gone and his pants were rolled up a couple inches above his ankles. His jacket, bow tie, and bracers were all removed, and his shirt had two buttons undone.

Rose grinned and rolled her eyes at the attention he garnered, but her own attention was pulled off to the side. A lone figure sat on a log, watching the festivities with a small smile. Rose remembered Romulus for a moment, and thought perhaps she should leave him be, but she shook that feeling off and walked over to him.

"Mind if I have a seat?" Rose asked before sitting down when he shook his head. The Doctor had informed her that while the people that inhabited this planet looked quite humanoid, they had significantly shorter life spans. While the boy only looked in his late teens, it meant he was closer to the middle of his life than she was. "Enjoyin' the festival?" Rose questioned, trying to follow his line of sight. There were a couple girls surrounding a rather fit looking bloke.

"Yeah, of course, I enjoy it every year." He sat up straighter and offered a hand. "Sorry, no manners as of late, my name is Hanes."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rose." She took his hand and squeezed it gently, it was their version of a handshake. Rose then offered a softly glowing flower crown and Hanes smiled his thanks, but didn't put it on his head as he looked back at the group. The bloke had stood up straighter, and was watching Rose and Hanes. When he realized he was caught staring he gave a small wave. "You should go give it to him, he hasn't gotten a crown yet." Rose offered softly, glancing over to see Hanes duck his head.

"Oh- I- we- aren't- I can't-" Hanes looked flustered and suddenly Rose felt terrible.

"'m sorry, it's not really any of my business is it?" Rose quickly covered, earning a small smile from Hanes.

"No, it's fine, thank you, it's very kind of you- most people- thank you." Hanes shook his head, his cotton candy blue hair falling into his eyes. Rose chewed on the corner of her thumb before her eyes sought out the Doctor again of their own accord. "Are you and him-" Hanes motioned to the Doctor, who was dancing around with children on his feet. He had a whole hoard of them following him around, vying for their turn.

"No, at one point we were, I think, but I don't think he feels that way about me anymore." Rose rested her chin in her hand as she watched the Doctor. Then she thought of River Song. "We got separated for a bit, and he found someone else."

"That doesn't bother you?" Hanes asked in surprise, sounding like he was watching a new favorite show.

"A bit, sometimes more than a bit, sometimes not at all." Rose noted with wary amusement that it was easier to talk to a complete stranger about this, someone with no biased opinion. When she wanted advice she called Jack, but having an outside outlook was quite lovely on its own.

"You must be in love then," Hanes said with another smile. Rose looked over at him, but his eyes were on someone else again. The fit bloke with dark blue hair. That was another thing here, all the locals seemed to have a wide variety of blue hair. Rose briefly found herself wondering how she would look like with blue hair. "That's what my mum says anyways, that when you really love someone you just want them to be happy, even if it's not with you." Rose felt there was more behind that story, but she didn't push it.

"But it's nice when they are happy with you." Rose amended, earning a grin from Hanes. "Have you told him how you feel?"

"Have you told your giant how you feel?" Hanes countered, making Rose laugh. He did seem quite tall amongst the locals, though there were some tourist in the mix.

"A long time ago I did, he didn't say it back, and then he did- and it's all rather complicated." Rose groaned and rubbed her temples, this time making Hanes laugh.

"It's tradition here, that you set a proposal if you take the crown off your own head and offer it to them. If they take the crown they are wearing off and put it on you, then they have accepted your proposal. There is a binding ceremony, mostly for show, sometimes for real, that institutes as a promise for future marriage. If you and your partner wear the ribbon all the night, to the point that the first sun peaks around the planet, then you will be blessed with a long, happy life together."

"That's lovely." Rose and Hanes exchanged a few more words before the Doctor stumbled over to her and pulled her up for a dance.

"Save me," The Doctor whispered frantically in her ear as he gave a look around to the locals surrounding them.

"Oh you love it." Rose teased, but she began dancing with him anyways. He was grinning down at her, every once and a while jerking her in another direction or barely missing stepping on her barefoot, and a couple times elbowing her. Rose laughed good naturedly through the entire thing before pulling them to a stop. "Haven't given you anything yet, here." She pulled off her own flower crown and watched as the Doctor's smile dimmed before blooming fully again.

"Right-o! Oh, no, I will never use that word again, Rose, don't even let me use that word again, it's your duty to the universe to never let me utter that word again." The Doctor rambled as he took off his own flower crown and placed it atop his companions head before bowing down and letting Rose put her crown on top of his thick head of hair.

They dance, only taking small breaks to eat some of the local glowing fruit which tastes like a mixture of honey and strawberries and even though the Doctor makes faces at the sweetness of it all, Rose loves it. Then the Doctor pulls her back to the dancing area and is teaching how to dance properly, but his legs are too long and she's laughing too hard and they end up tangled up in each other's limbs more often than not.

Rose is half-apologizing, half-giggling about her elbow meeting the sensitive flesh of the Doctor's gut when he tried to dip her and she attempted to spin when they are suddenly pulled up onto a small raised platform. There are about half a dozen other couples on the stage, looking giddy and embarrassed and Rose raises her eye brows at the Doctor in question, but he just adjusts the flower crown on her head and pulls lightly on one of her braids.

Rose quickly discerns that it's the celebration that Hanes was talking about earlier. Each couple is tied to one another with a small, golden-glowing string, and they speak the ancient rites to each other. They are mostly promises that sound vaguely like wedding vows, though a bit more like Shakespeare had written them. Rose is covering her mouth as the Doctor speaks his part, his grin nearly making her burst with laughter as he tied the golden string around Rose's wrist.

The Doctor bent over, removing Rose's hand from her mouth as he continues speaking the rites. His lips brush against her forehead and Rose can't help the small, happy giggle that escapes her. She never considered herself much of a giggler, especially now that she was older, but this whole day had been absolutely wonderful. Rose had nearly forgotten what it was like, not having to run for her life, or having to figure out some Pond-related family drama. It wasn't that she didn't like the running for her life, or the more soap opera aspects of the Doctor's new life, but she had felt exhausted for so long. Running on nothing but fumes and will power.

The Doctor pressed a kiss against her cheek, then the other one, and Rose let out a small hum of happiness as she closed her eyes, trying to contain her laughter. It didn't help that she could feel the small shake of the Doctor's own body containing his own laughter, or hear the way his words caught over one another every once and a while, before he saved himself and continued speaking. If she opened her eyes she knew that she would see the small quirk of his lips, right there at the corner that belied of his own happiness.

And that's what Rose really needed too. Not just for herself to have this moment, but for the Doctor to get a small break too. She knew the responsibilities heaped upon the century old Time Lords shoulder. People believed he had a duty to show up and save everyone in a timely manner, and lately it seemed like he believed that too. So when he was too late or things did not go according to plan he took it hard, too hard. Rose wanted to yell at the universe, but she had never been one for yelling, and she knew it was pointless, so she had been on a secret mission to make the Doctor have moments like this. Moments where he could forget, at least for a little while, that he was the last of his kind, that he was an old soldier forced to continue to battle, that he was blamed and praised for things he wanted nothing to do with. Moments where he could just be a tourist, enjoying a promise-ritual on a planet with things that glowed.

The Doctor kissed the very tip of her nose, just a brush of his lips really, but she peeked open her eyes to see him beaming down at her. He looked so proud at her, though she hadn't done anything but stop herself from giggling like a 12 year old girl at an Nysync concert, but she couldn't help but return his smile.

"Your turn." The Doctor reminded her, holding up the loose end of the string.

"Oh, right!" Rose and the Doctor both laughed, leaning towards each other as Rose took the end of the string and tied it loosely around the Doctor's wrist, her fingers softly tracing over the skin found there. When Rose's hazel eyes met green ones there was a softness there that was absent a moment ago. Their manic grins tuned down to something smaller, but still powerful all the same.

Rose said the words that she heard repeated several times over by now, her fingers laced with the Doctor's. He bent down a fraction, and she stood up on her toes to gently touch her lips to his forehead. Her singular heart beat quicker inside a chest that somehow seemed to small as she felt something graze across her mind. She pressed light kisses to both of his cheeks, her throat constricting around unspoken words as she considered her next move. Before she could over think it, Rose leaned forward and pressed a light, chaste kiss to the Doctor's lips.

She leaned backed, her mouth forming words her brain had long ago stopped paying attention to so it could closer examine the curves and angles that made up her wonderfully alien's face, but the words got caught up, just for a moment when she pulled back and he leant forward, as if he wanted to continue on with the kiss.

Then the Doctor's eyes opened wide, and she could see that fantastically large brain of his kick into gear and start overanalyzing every little moment. Rose didn't need to merge with the TARDIS again to see how the future would play out. He would nearly immediately start pushing her away, perhaps drag the Ponds back on board, or more likely River Son to put some distance between the two of them. There would be heavy flirting, with everyone but her, and she would be hurt and he would feel horrible, but he would never apologize for it. And then there'd be another small tear in the fabric that connected them together.

Not this time, Rose thought as she leaned forward and instead of kissing his nose, gave it a little nip and grinned at him, his favorite tongue-in-teeth grin. The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise before he laughed in a way that settled deep in Rose's bones. A feeling of deep contentment surrounded her as she nudged him, finishing off the spoke rites.

Rose did not remark on how a small kiss had nearly sent him running while something akin to a marriage proposal did not. But Rose knew why, all their marriages really did not mean anything to the Doctor. She may remember every single one with sharp detail, well except for that one in Boztail, but there was a lot of alcoholic fruit going around and by the time she realized that the fruit was akin to alcohol, it had been too late. But they were just rituals to the Doctor, rituals that were fun to play along too, but that was not how his people were married, so it didn't mean anything to him, while it meant so much to Rose.

Rose admitted, as they danced around, laughing with each other, that she was as much in love with this Doctor as she was with his past selves. She thought about the 'curse of the Time Lords', watching everyone they loved wither and die around them while they were forced to remain young and move on. Rose couldn't help but think that maybe that was the universe evening out the odds, that the Time Lords had all that power that they couldn't have love too. So maybe this was the universes curse for her, to continually fall in love with a different man who was very much the same. She imagined it was because she had taken in the Time Vortex and used it so selfishly. To save the Doctor, yes, but also bringing Jack back alive, extending her own life, and making sure she could find her way back to the Doctor time and time again.

Rose pondered on that train of thought as they made their way back to the TARDIS, hand in hand with their wrists still bound by the softly glowing string.

"Doctor, do you actually believe that the Time Lords were cursed?" Rose asked, earning a surprised look from the Doctor. He opened his mouth, going to respond with the first thing that came to his mind, but then he closed it decisively and seemed to think on it.

"I was a bit dramatic in my last body, wasn't I?" The Doctor asked with a half grin, gently swinging their interlocked hands as he looked up at the stars. "The Time Lords might have been cursed, but it wasn't the curse I spoke of when we had met Sarah Jane." The Doctor still smiled at the mention of Sarah Jane, his face lighting up and Rose wondered about the other woman, about her son.

"Okay, spit it out already." Rose said with a sigh as she leaned against the console, purposefully putting herself in the Doctor's path. The shining string still connected them and she played with the thread lightly as she stared at him.

"Spit what out?" The Doctor asked, eye brows raised, a look of innocence on his face. Rose let out a snort, not believing that for one moment. "Rose- I, I've been putting something off for a while now."

"Which is?" Rose asked, taking a step closer, her fingers dropping the bit of string so she could lace her fingers with his. His body relaxed, just a bit, as he stared down at their entwined hands.

"My death."

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while, but here you go! I've had the darnest time writing the end of this chapter, but I do hope you enjoy it. Thank you for all the lovely, encouraging reviews!**


	13. Chapter 13

"So, this is where you've been hiding." Rose smiled at the sound of Jack's voice but kept her eyes closed. It was a nice, surprisingly sunny day in Cardiff and she was enjoying her catnap on the roof pretending to be Torchwood's front. She felt the air next to her shift and smelled the familiar scent of Captain Jack Harkness, Senior Torchwood Member of Torchwood Three, Cardiff. It was a musky smell, mixed with apples and it was quite gorgeous, though Jack probably was aware of that. It was also familiar and made her whole body relax from a tensed position she didn't even know she was holding.

"No hidin', just enjoyin' the day." Rose answered, though Jack knew her better. Probably wasn't anyone left on Earth her knew her, but Jack had always known her best. Even better than the Doctor, because he held her at this high position where she could do no wrong. Jack knew she was full of mistakes and flaws, but he loved her because of them.

"Rose-" Jack cleared his throat and tried to start his sentence again, but came short of it two, then three times.

"You don't have to explain anything to me Jack." Rose said, pushing herself into a sitting position and turning to look at him.

"From that first day you've meet me, you expected so much more than me than anyone else." Jack finally got out, a bitter smile twisting up his handsome features.

"I never expected you to be perfect Jack," Rose stretched her legs and gave the conversation a good thought before speaking again. "When you left us in that basement, I knew you'd be back. You were a conman, but you were already ours." She grinned at him and the bitter look on Jack's face faded a little.

"You saved my team." Jack said slowly, as if he couldn't really admit what had happened himself, and that he'd been unable to act quickly enough to prevent it.

"Just Tosh and Owen, and Owen's still all- undead and miserable, well at least the miserable part hasn't changed since he was actually alive." Rose turned her face towards the sun, stretching out her neck. "When the Doctor gets back I'll have him look Owen over. He might be a prat, but no one deserves to live like that."

Things had been complicated since Rose arrived at Torchwood nearing two weeks beforehand. Owen had died, then been brought back to life by this odd gauntlet piece of alien technology that basically shot electricity through the brain to stimulate life so Torchwood could get some answers to questions they couldn't solve without the help of the dead. Except Owen had been left "alive" too long, and now he couldn't be killed. But he didn't have the luxury of healing, or of being mostly alive, like Jack was. Owen had no heartbeat, his blood no longer pumped, and it was a mystery as to how he moved around at all. The worst part was that he couldn't heal, a broken finger stayed broken, and he showed no visible signs of aging or decay.

"He's going to hate me." Jack sighed, as if he believed the Doctor had every right to hate him.

"Oi, you listen to me Jack Harkness, the Doctor loves you, and he expects way to much from those that he does love. He expects perfection, and when we fall short it's a crushin' disappointment to be reminded of our humanity. And we just let him treat us like that, which is wrong on every level. We are human, well- we were born human at least, not sure how much of us is human now." Rose gave Jack a cheeky grin, which he returned. "But we make mistakes, so does the Doctor for all his experience he has on us. You took a corrupt government organization and you made it better. Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes we are the reason those things go wrong, but as long as we pick ourselves up and keep movin' then there's nothin' to be ashamed about."

"Very stirring Rosie." Jack said with a grin. "But you're forgetting the feeling the Doctor gets off of me, a fixed point in time, I rub his time senses the wrong way, which normally I'd make all kinds of innuendo's about, but not this time. He can hardly be around me."

"Because you're a reminder that he failed to save you, he failed a companion and you ended up dead. He blames himself for your death, no matter that you're still alive and kickin'." Rose countered back and watched as Jack opened his mouth then closed it suddenly.

"You're saying he's in love with me? Because I can work with that." Rose gave Jack a light shove, making the man chuckle.

"I'm sayin' he loves you, like he loves all his companions. He does expect more of us, but he doesn't stop lovin' us when we don't meet those expectations. Just threatens to take you home, but you're not even travelin' with him so that threat really doesn't matter."

"Ah, you finally admitting he loves you?" Jack asked with a sly grin.

"Of course he loves me, I've known that since I was 19." Rose pulled up her jean clad legs. The left knee was completely missing and flaked with dried blood, but otherwise they had escaped this whole ordeal mostly unscathed. "There's a difference between lovin' someone and bein' in love with someone."

"And the Doctor is both with you." Rose gave a huff and Jack laughed. "Rose-"

"Please don't Jack. I know you're just tryin' to help, but it hurts." Rose tilted her head back towards the sun, trying to think of the right words. "I was 19 when I met the Doctor, and sufferin' from an absurd amount of self assurance. He was just comin' off the Time War, broken and bleedin' from the inside. That Doctor, the one who wore wool jumpers and went on twenty minute rants of the stupidity of other races when he cut himself shaving, that Doctor loved 19 year old Rose Tyler. The one full of ideals and blind courage, the selfish one who loved and trusted with all her heart. He needed her. Then he died for her and changed into what he thought she wanted. Tall and gorgeous with just the best hair. She was a couple years older, but still set in the belief that she was different from all the others who came before her, and that Doctor, the one made for her, realized how important she had become to him and did what the Doctor always does. He ran. He ran to French mistresses and Queens of Egypt, he ran into blazing fires and black holes, and she followed him. Then he lost her and even though he finally admitted he loved her, he was also proven right. That he knew he would eventually lose her, so what was the point in even trying?"

"But you came back."

"Of course I did," Rose took a deep breath. "But I got hard tryin' too. I changed, became older and apparently, not-quite-so-human anymore. I learned to fight and use a gun. I saw wars and had all the flesh of my back stripped off. I spent mornings throwing up and nights crying and the days pretending that the previous two things never happened. I watched the stars go out and the ugly silence that followed, from civilizations we had contacted previously blinking out of existence. And I got back and I nearly lost him. Then there were bloody daleks everywhere and a meta-crisis."

"And two idiot Doctor's who thought they knew best for you."

"Thank you!" Rose let out a laugh, both of them grinning each other. "Jack, I tried so hard not to love him, but it was impossible. He was so much like the Doctor, except he loved snoggin' and playin' with my little brother, and he was so amazin'. Of course he took apart every appliance in my mums house, which made her force us to move out together. One time he disappeared and popped up three days later, covered in grease and dirt and a bit of his own blood, but he was wearin' this stupid, manic grin like he had done the most cleverest thing ever. And it must have been one day since we got back to that universe and there I was, stupidly fallin' for the Doctor all over again." Rose wiped furiously at her eyes before burying her face into her knees.

"Good kisser then?"

"Oh, bloody fantastic! It was completely unfair."

"Well, over 900 years of practice he should be fairly good at it."

"That is the worst image, thank you for puttin' that in my head." But Jack's small distraction had worked, she had stopped crying. "And then that Doctor, the Doctor I'm s'pose to spend the rest of my _human_ life with is erased from existence! And I'm left alone, in a parallel universe, again! And I still don't hate that stupid alien git. I get tossed back here, and he's regenerated into this lanky, clumsy, goofy guy with this young face that just hides how absolutely broken he still is inside. He's so angry and bitter Jack, so much more than that first body was, and sometimes- sometimes he seems happy, but there's a darkness to him now."

"You scared of him?"

"Absolutely not."

"Do you love him?"

"Absolutely." Jack laughed as he hooked an arm around Rose's shoulders and pulled her close. Rose suddenly let out a hiss of pain. "Were you hurt?" Jack asked worriedly, but Rose was already pulling away and yanking the chain out from underneath her shirt. The TARDIS key glowed softly, like someone had been holding it in a fire.

"The TARDIS!" Rose yelled, scrambling to get up. Her body protested. It had been a long two weeks and she hadn't been getting much sleep in the meantime. She had been blown up, shot at, tossed around, and just generally beaten up and her body was letting her know that it was close to the end of the line. But Rose had a lot of experience pushing away physical pain and mental exhaustion to keep herself running, especially when that involved the Doctor.

It took her what felt like an extensive amount of time to get down to the street, though it had been less than 10 minutes. The TARDIS key was burning white hot by that time, and Rose had to yank off her jumper and wrap it around the key to keep it from burning her. She could hear Jack's chunky bootfalls behind her as she pulled open the TARDIS door, thankful that she didn't actually have to use the burning key.

Rose turned, automatically moving out of the way so Jack could fit in through the door, but Jack wasn't there. Nothing was there, just empty space. A black void.

Gravity shifted suddenly, and Rose found herself falling backwards as the TARDIS door snapped shut.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

"Rose!" The Doctor was in front of her, all floppy hair and pointy elbows and knobby knees and a fantastic smile that lit up his young face. Rose looked at him in surprise as she ran a hand over her face, touched her hair, and looked down at her body.

"So, not dead then, that's nice-, that's- yeah, like that. Lovin' that actually." Rose answered with her own grin but something felt off. Something felt wrong, but she was inside the TARDIS with the Doctor so what could possibly be wrong? "Jack!" Jack had disappeared, along with all of Cardiff.

"Yes, well, I guess you could say that, you'd be wrong, but you could say that, if it makes you feel better." The Doctor wrung his hands together before darting over to the TARDIS console as Rose leaned against the jump seat, suddenly feeling very exhausted. She did take notice that he didn't say anything about Jack.

"There's no hallways or doors, no stairs- just empty space." Rose looked around the TARDIS console room, wondering what was holding everything together when beyond the dim lights of the room there was absolutely nothing. "Am I dead?" Rose asked, trying to track the Doctor's movements but her body felt so heavy and her head so light, it felt as if one might disconnect from the other.

"No, not yet anyways, working on that. Bit difficult to explain, this." The Doctor was suddenly in front of Rose, helping her onto the jump seat before running back over to the console. Rose stared at the large white wolf only several feet from the Doctor. Its golden eyes were on her but it turned its head and watched the Doctor with an intelligence that spoke volumes.

"Are we inside my head?" Rose asked, eyes on the large animal that wasn't quite an animal at all. Just a manifestation of her subconscious to try and turn something intangible into something easier to grasp. The Bad Wolf became an actual wolf. It was certainly better to look at than the nightmare wolf the Minotaur had conjured up for her.

"Yes and no, whichever helps you accept this better." The Doctor answered, dancing around the console, pulling bits and pieces out, shoving things into his jacket pockets as he went around, dodging around the large wolf without giving it a second glance.

"Oh good, you're just as helpful as the real Doctor, bloody useless you are." Rose managed to grumble out before her whole world went sideways. She nearly fell right out of her chair but strong hands held her up and pushed her back more firmly onto the chair as her eyes snapped into focus. "Hello."

"Hello." Brown eyes stared out at her from a freckled face. A wide grin split that face as he made sure she could sit on her own before dashing back over to the console. The console that was more coral and organic than it had been a moment ago.

"That was unexpected." Rose managed to get out and grimaced because her mouth felt fuzzy, as if she had fallen asleep without brushing her teeth first. The Doctor reached for something, but stopped suddenly, staring down at his trench-coat clad arm. He turned his hand over in front of his face before patting his stomach then shaking his head and resuming his mad dash around the console.

"Well the entire universe is collapsing in on itself, the casual nexus itself is crumbling down around us. And the universe is trying to do whatever it can to prolong its existence, which means ridding itself of anomalies." The Doctor explained, his trench coat billowing out behind him as he rushed around the console. There was a half built machine in his hand, sparking wires sticking out from it making it look quite dangerous to hold.

"Anomalies like me, it's tryin' to get rid of me." Rose couldn't work up a good indignation at that because she just felt so tired all the sudden. Tired and very cold. "Or like Jack." Rose felt a great swell of panic and guilt and pain at the thought of Jack, swallowed into nothingness, but she fought that back, half her body bending at her waist as she gasped out. The Doctor's hands were on her, pushing her up straight and cupping her cheek and feeling her forehead. "What happened Doctor?" Rose managed to gasp out.

"Things didn't exactly go according to plan," The Doctor's frantic movements faltered for a moment, but then he was measuring her pulse with quick fingers on her wrists and pushing back sweaty hair from her forehead. "River was suppose to kill me, I had a plan, Rose Tyler. A good plan! A brilliant plan actually! Everything was going to be fine, but she couldn't kill me."

"Can't say I blame her for that, Doctor." Rose countered, smiling slightly at the familiar old face, even as her heart twisted painfully at the memories it drudged back up.

"My death is a fixed point in time." Rose closed her eyes, just briefly.

"Hate those." She grumbled and peaked to look up at the Doctor, her Doctor, and he grinned at her. That magnificient, manic grin that made him appear so much younger. It lit up his entire face, and there was a softness in his eyes, a look just for her.

"Yes, well, fixed point in time, not suppose to change those. But this was a bit bigger than saving your dads life, this was me we're talking about." Rose rolled her eyes, but the small action made her so very tired. "Reapers couldn't clean up that mess, so the universe is caving in on itself."

"Blimey," Rose breathed out as the Doctor dashed around the console again. She seemed to lose track of time for a bit because when she came back to it there was something different about him. He seemed younger, his suit and hair just a bit different. "Your girlfriend's barmy. You sure do know how to pick them." Rose teased to fight against the growing panic. Barmy was actually the nicest thing she could think of.

"Oi!" The Doctor was near her face again, his brown eyes familiar and sad and so very ancient. "Hold this for a moment." He placed the sparking machine in her hand and Rose was surprised when she felt it thrumming. She tried to focus her attention on it but her head was just too fuzzy. "Hey, you stick with me Rose Tyler, tell me about these girlfriends of mine." The Doctor was back running around the console.

"Why would- oh right, memory recognition. If the universe is tryin' to rid itself of me it'll start with my past." Rose fumbled with the little alive machine in her hand and realized the pulsing beat helped her concentrate. "There was that tree woman from Satellite Five. So if we aren't inside of my head and we aren't in the TARDIS, then where are we?"

"Jabe? The representative from the Forest of Cheem? How do you figure she was my girlfriend?" The Doctor asked as he pulled up the grating from the floor and began to pull seemingly random objects out of the hidden compartment. "And it's difficult, bit timey-wimey, that. We're a manifestation created from the TARDIS but we're real. Both you and the TARDIS pulled you here, to a safe place, when the universe tried to erase you but it won't be safe for long."

"I give you the air from my lungs," Rose mimicked her first Doctor, doing a weirdly good impersonation. The Doctor stopped his rummaging to give her a look over his specs. "Oh, how- intimate." Rose said in a breathy voice meant to mimic Jabe. Rose opened her mouth to tease him more but the room shifted and she nearly pitched forward but managed to catch herself at the last moment.

"Rose? Rose, you alright?" A surprisingly northern accent questioned her. Rose lifted her head, her eyes meeting blue ones.

"I thought you said you couldn't do that," Rose reached up, the tips of her fingers barely touching the Doctors new-old face, as if she thought the moment she really touched him he'd disappear.

"Couldn't do what?" The Doctor asked gruffly, taking hold of her outstretched hand and checking her pulse with two strong fingers against her wrist. It was the same instinctual movement her other Doctor had done, but the mannerisms were so different. The way they did it different. Same man, different face.

"Doctor, you know you're all leathery and ears right?" Rose asked, letting out a laugh by the shocked look on his face. The Doctor pulled on said ears before running a hand over his close cropped hair.

"That's new. Never done that before." The Doctor patted at his jacket before digging around in one of his pockets and pulling out a small container. "Guess the universe is tryin' to erase me too, must be mad at me for helpin' you, it can properly bugger off now." He gave her that grin, the manic one that Rose could never not return. Even when she was exhausted and her body ached with every breath, she still grinned back.

"It's startin' the opposite way with you, but how come you can remember your future if it's erasin' it?" Rose questioned, letting out a surprised noise when the Doctor took to pulling down her vest a little. But he opened the container and placed two, nearly clear circular objects right below her clavicle. His fingers lingered against her exposed skin and Rose felt herself leaning into him.

"Bit harder to do, erase a Time Lord, I imagine I'll keep de-generatin', which is not something that's suppose to be happenin', just in case you are wonderin'. Don't worry, just a future version of myself, my younger one- the one you just left, he's alright. Well, not alright, he's gettin' married after all." The Doctor cupped Rose's face for a quick moment, making sure she could sit up on her own before he darted back over to the console, this time pulling a piece of the panel away and yanking out wires.

"Oh she is goin' to electrocute you for that." Rose said while tossing around the idea of the Doctor getting married in her head. Rose was a bit jealous at that, and she was a bit ashamed to think that, considering the Doctor and herself had been married loads of times on different planets and a couple space station and one weird shared hallucinogenic dream. Rose had even accidently gotten herself hitched to Jack Harkness two- no three times.

"Not when it means helpin' you, she let you pull her apart in that alternative reality where I died in the Thames." The Doctor answered before sticking half of his body into the console. His denim covered bum stuck out and Rose, despite the exhaustion, pain, and fear, couldn't help but grin at the sight. He really did have a nice bum.

"You've gotten married tons of times, haven't you? What makes this one so different?" Rose asked, fighting against the all-consuming fog spreading throughout her mind, the Doctor's nice bum was a helpful distraction. Something shifted to the left and she turned her attention to where the large wolf had been. In the wolves place was Rose, well the younger version of Rose with the time vortex swirling around inside of her. She glowed gold, her eyes even older than the Doctor's and she had tear stained cheeks. She wasn't staring at the older-version of Rose though, she was looking off into the darkness and her hand came up, as if she was holding back that devouring blackness.

"Never done it the Time Lord way before," The Doctor answered, sounding quite put out from inside the console. Rose pushed herself to her feet and took two stumbling steps towards the Doctor before her knee's connected with the floor. Rose expected grating and was met with hardwood floor.

Still clutching the pulsing machine in one hand, Rose spread her fingers out on the floor of the TARDIS. The main console still took up the majority of the space, large and as alien looking as ever, but it was also a look Rose had never seen.

"Rose?" A man was kneeling in front of her. A man with shaggy brown hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Doctor?" Rose questioned, though who else could it be?

"Have I gone and changed again? I am sorry about that, you wouldn't know this face, now would you?" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair then down his face, as if taking cues from his physical appearance to know which body he was in. "Ah, yes, this one came right before the one you knew, so at least I seem to be going in order, but I assure you, it really is me. This is actually quite late in this body, right before I entered the war for good, or worse."

"Bit posh, aren't you?" Rose asked, purposefully making her London accent even more pronounced. The Doctor gave her a grin, an unfamiliar grin but all the same it was aimed just at her. _Bit posh and a bit good lookin',_ Rose couldn't help but think.

"I know this is all very strange for you Rose, but-" The Doctor glanced over at the console.

"Do what you need to do Doctor, don't worry about me." Rose said easily. The Doctor shifted forward and cupped her face in between his hands.

"I am doing this for you Rose, I just got you back and I don't intend on giving you up without a fight." This Doctor with his handsome face and his posh accent hesitated a moment before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Rose's forehead. "Ah, I forgot how emotional this body was. Now, tell me Rose, what Christmas present did you get when you were five?" The Doctor was up and dodging about. This regeneration seemed to be agile and quick, his long coat whipping out behind him in a dramatic flare. He looked older than the Doctor in pinstripes or the one donned in tweed, but not in a bad way. In the way that some blokes aged, that made them all the more good looking as they got older.

Rose briefly wondered if all the versions of the Doctor's had a great bum, but she pushed that thought aside to concentrate on his question. Though she did remind herself to tell Jack about her theory, he would find it hilarious. That's if the Doctor could fix everything River Song had broken, and get Jack back. Her heart squeezed painfully at the thought, but the Doctor cleared his throat from his spot by the console and Rose remembered his question.

"I- when I was five I got- I- I can't remember." Rose said, trying to keep the panic from her voice. The little machine in her hand seemed to pulse more frantically with her own alarmed heart beat.

"It's alright Rose, it's fine, just tell me the earliest memory you can recall and we'll go from there. Tell me something I've never heard before." The Doctor urged, his voice like a soothing balm. Rose took a deep breath as she touched the little plastic pieces attached to her skin of her chest. Part of her wanted to know what the Doctor was planning on doing, but she thought his attention was best put onto the task at hand than trying to describe whatever scheme he was working on for her.

"Before Shireen my best mate was Frankie. Her real name was Francis, but she was a right scrapper, beat anyone up to a bloody pulp that called her that. It was just her and her dad living on the estate, but then her dad got hurt at his job. He got compensated extremely well to keep him from suing the company, and the first thing he did was take Frankie away from the estate." Rose recalled. She had been around nine, back when she was too young to hang out with Mickey and his friends. "I was so angry, but I met her again about a year before I met you. She was at uni, got her A-levels and everything. She stopped gettin' into fights too."

"How'd you meet Shireen?" The Doctor was kneeling down in front of her but he had changed again. Not into another body but he looked younger, his hair was longer. Rose reached out and touched the end of the long strands. Even his clothes had changed, became even fancier than before. Laugh lines and little crinkles around the eyes had smoothed out, and- those blue eyes were suddenly on her, sparkling mischeaviously like he could hear her thoughts and knew how much she fancied this old body of his. He had asked her a question, hadn't he?

"I don't really remember, not in the my memories are being erased way, but just because we became mates the way most little kids do." Rose explained with a shrug as the Doctor attached one thin blue wire and one slightly thicker red wire to the plastic bits on her skin. Rose could tell by the Doctor's slightly confused looks that he did not know. "You know kids, they look at each other and go 'do you want to be my best mate?' and if the other person agrees then that's that. Kids are simple."

"Human children are extraordinary." The Doctor commented in earnest and Rose laughed, causing the young-looking Doctor to smile. "That is really how you make friends?"

"When you're little, yeah." Rose thought about it a bit before her smile turned into a full out grin. "Sometimes I forget you're an alien. But you kind of do that, go around and at the first meetin' ask someone to come into your home, share adventures with them."

"I never really looked at it that way." The Doctor was still smiling as Rose's world went sideways and dim. "Rose, no, don't you dare. I thought you were stronger than that, thought you'd fight a bit harder to stay alive." Rose stared at the man in front of her in confusion as she forced herself to focus.

"Oh," Rose said in shock at the difference. "I like your jumper." She pressed her fingers against the question marks on the jumper, smiling a bit.

"Jumper- ah, yes, I do seem to be regressing at an alarming rate. Well, nothing to do about that now, is there? We must go on, otherwise we're both doomed." The Doctor then started to dig into his jacket pockets.

"That's ominous." Rose couldn't help but tease.

"Now, now Rose. No time for that, what's your earliest memory?" The Doctor tutted as he pulled out a yoyo, a small notebook, a question mark shaped pen, some yarn, and a couple objects Rose couldn't identify.

"Livin' with Jimmy Stone," Rose pulled a face, which earned her a look from the Doctor. "Why couldn't the universe have started with those memories?" The Doctor carefully extracted the pulsing machine from Rose's hand and started to fiddle with it. Rose felt a bit breathless.

"Nonsense. You are a sum of your memories, and take it from someone who had to deal without memories, you do not want to go through life like that. Memories, even the bad ones, make up a person. Make them into who they are. Why did you leave Mr. Stone?" The Doctor questioned after his small lecture. Rose couldn't help but grin through the whole thing.

"He hit me." The Doctor's movements halted immediately and he looked up to meet Rose's eyes. There was something dangerous and dark hidden in those eyes. "Just the once, but that was enough. Left him, took a while but I managed to get myself back home. I always do." Rose grinned at the end, even though the thought of half her life being erased from existence made her want to scream. "I was more than a little embarrassed, but my mum let me back in with hardly a word edge wise."

"I find that hard to believe, she hated me and she let me know it." The Doctor said in a disgruntled voice that Rose couldn't help but laugh at.

"She didn't hate you, she hated me bein' away so much, but she didn't hate you. When my mum really hates a person, which does not happen often, she never talks about them. Never mentions them, never acknowledges they ever existed. It's like she- she's bein' erased. I can't remember what she looked like when I was little, I can't even remember bein' little. I didn't- I didn't think about that Doctor. About my mum bein' erased too. All I've got are my memories of her, I don't even have any pictures." Rose was staring at her own shaking hands, wondering when she would forget those hands belonged to her. She had a long, thick scar running over her knuckles on her left hand. She had to get eight stitches, it had bled so much, and her mum had used this fancy, embroiled hanky to stop off the bleeding as she took Rose to hospital. That had been a year after she was stuck in Pete's world for the second time, how long would it take for that memory to be taken away from her?

"Rose, Rose I need you to pull yourself together. Do you understand me?" The Doctor shook her once, nearly rattling her brain and she looked up at him to tell him off but the words caught in her mouth.

"Oh god," Rose covered her mouth as she looked over this new Doctor.

"What? What is it?" The Doctor suddenly sounded worried.

"And I thought your jumper was bad," Rose couldn't stop her giggles at the incredulous look the Doctor gave her as he glanced down at his multi-hued clothes.

"Really Rose, I'm trying to save your life-"

"Did you even look in a mirror when you choose that outfit?"

"Like you're one to speak! Do you own anything that isn't a different shade of pink?" The Doctor snapped as Rose tossed her head back and gave a real laugh.

"What's this?" Rose asked as she reached for his blue spotted tie but her hand was knocked away. "Did you take a dozen different coats and sew them together?" Rose wasn't deterred in the least as she fingered the lapels on his colorful jacket. The Doctor knocked her hands away and pushed the little machine back into them. He pushed up to his feet and in three angry strides he was away from her and back at the TARDIS.

The Doctor was grumbling to himself and Rose was laughing as she looked down at the device in her hand. It was still pulsing, but it felt warm now, like it was radiating some sort of heat from within. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant feeling, just odd. All the exposed wiring had been tucked and wrapped neatly against the machine, coiled tightly. It was bigger than her fist and though it was made of metal it somehow felt delicate within her hands.

"Doctor-" Rose looked up and nearly passed out cold from the sudden feeling of light headedness that took over her.

"Rose?" The Doctor was in front of her again, hands holding her up.

"Sorry, I don't- I don't feel too well to be honest. I'm a bit scared too Doctor." Rose looked up at the Doctor, a little slower than before. "Oh, are you always handsome, is that some sort of Time Lord vanity? Can't just be the smartest bloke in the universe, have to be the best lookin' too?" The Doctor's cheeks went a little pink as he looked down at himself, touching the vegetable attached to his jacket that Rose decided not to question him about since he had gotten so insulted at her teasing in his last body.

"Rose, now is hardly the time for flattery." The Doctor said before smoothing down his jumper and taking up the wires attached to Rose's chest. Even through her fear she couldn't help but wonder what was up with the cricket uniform? She didn't even think any of her Doctors had mentioned cricket before. Had he always been so very posh before his northern regeneration?

"That's what we do though, innit? We dance and we tease and the scarier the situation, the more we do it. We don't ever say what we really think or really feel, and the universe is always tryin' to tear us apart. Might actually succeed this time 'round." Rose could hardly see for the tears in her eyes.

"Please don't give up now Rose, I need you to stay strong just for a bit longer. I know you're tired and scared, and I know it isn't fair of me to keep asking you to be strong for me, but just once more. One more time Rose Tyler. Be brilliant and amazing and so strong for me." The Doctor whispered to her, his forehead pressed against hers as tears ran down her cheeks. Rose wiped at her eyes and tried to pull herself together.

"You're degeneratin' more quickly now. How many more bodies do you have left?" Rose asked worriedly, ignoring how her voice wobbled a bit here and there. She could be strong just once more so the Doctor could carry on with his plan.

"Let's see," The Doctor pulled off his brown hat and placed it on top of Rose's head. Rose gave him a watery smile as the mess of curls that were hidden beneath the hat were revealed. He had a rather large nose contained in a kind looking face. There also seemed to be an impossibly long scarf wrapped around his neck. "After this one, just three. But it would probably be best to finish this sooner rather than later."

"This is a makeshift heart, innit?" Rose asked, holding up the device as the Doctor carefully attached the blue wire to the machine.

"Clever girl," The Doctor gave her an encouraging smile so Rose worked through what she thought the plan was out loud.

"You're goin' to trick the universe into thinkin' I'm gone," Rose said slowly. The Doctor shed his cape and laid it out onto the floor. "Three." Rose laid down on the cape and placed the metal heart over her own organic one. The Doctor, with his new-old head full of gray hair disappeared from her view before reappearing with some thin wires and attached those to the red wire connecting to her chest.

"Rose, now this is the important part, so I really do need you to pay attention and remember this. You need to hold onto something, keep it within your mind and do not let it go. Let everything else slip between your grasp, but keep a hold of that one thing. Do you have it in your minds eye?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes," Rose answered with a small smile. The console room was nearly gone, the only light emitting from the diminishing console herself. The Bad Wolf, the Other incarnation was just a small, fragile looking wolf now, but there was still strength in her eyes. Rose no longer feared her, because she had given everything to keep Rose and the Doctor safe. The Bad Wolf was as much a part of Rose now as Rose herself was. "Two." Rose said as the Doctor's face blocked her few. A face with thick brows and a thicker head of black hair.

"Do you trust me?" The Doctor asked.

"Of course." Rose answered without hesitation. The Doctor sat back and Rose blinked before looking over at him.

"One." Rose could barely make out the Doctor now. The Bad Wolf was gone all together and the room was quickly being devoured by a consuming darkness. The metal heart beat frantically against her chest. Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath of nothing.

No air. No light. No feeling. She was _nothing_, yet somehow she was dying. She struggled but she did not even know who she was. Did not know why she was fighting. Didn't even know what she was fighting in the first place. Something echoed in the darkness.

_ I could save the world but lose you._

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I had fun writing the multi-doctor's, and I'm sorry if it got confusing there. I didn't want to give anything away too much involving Torchwood, just incase anyone hasn't watched it, but has plans to, so I kept it vague. Thank you again for all your lovely reviews, they are extremely encouraging! Also, this story is coming to an end soon.**


	14. Chapter 14

_ Rose spotted the Doctor in the crowded alien market nearly immediately. Amongst all the bright feathers and full gowns and large top hats, he stuck out as an alien amongst aliens. It did help that the crowd gave him a wide berth of space, which Rose didn't really blame them for. He was in his full Oncoming Storm mood. Leaning against the side of a shop, arms crossed, hunched over, legs crossed in all his leather and dark clothes glory. Rose, if she hadn't been travelling with him over a year now, would have switched to the other side of the street if she saw him._

_ Instead of giving him space, Rose slide up next to him and hugged his arm to her chest, grinning up at him. Besides a slight twitch of his lips and a noticeable drop in tension, he didn't make any move to acknowledge her._

_ "Jack found a nice feathered couple," Rose said conversationally. She grinned in triumph when the Doctor let out a half-annoyed huff. She rested her chin against his bicep, staring up at the Doctor and his rather nice profile. Rose was quite aware what the Doctor thought of himself, daft old face, oversized features- but she really thought he was handsome. It was an odd thing for her to realize, when she stopped thinking of him as merely her driver and mate and started to notice the exact shade of his eyes and the way those denim trousers hugged his bum. She had always been attracted to pretty boys, and the Doctor could never be considered pretty. Pretty, no. Attractive, handsome, beautiful- yes._

_ "He was s'pose to be keepin' an eye on ya." The Doctor grumbled, still not willing to relinquish his dour mood. Rose ignored the barb that she couldn't handle herself, she knew when he was trying to bait her since he did it so often, and instead turned her head and rested her cheek against the buttery softness of his leather jacket._

_ "He offered to let me join," Rose said offhandedly, as if she constantly was asked to join in an orgy. She felt the Doctor stiffen and then relax a second later, letting out a huff that was more laughter than anything. "So who are we glarin' at?"_

_ "Dirty conman of a shopkeeper over there." The Doctor slipped right back into his bad mood, his whole body tensing and Rose laughed. "Not funny Rose! He has a part that only works in three kinds of ships, and all of them are decommissioned by this time. He's not likely to sell it to anyone else, so it's just gatherin' dust there!" The Doctor's voice darkened and his northern accent thickened until he started losing consonants and vowels by the end of his small rant._

_ "He's refusin' to sell it to you?" Rose asked, not thinking that was a very good way to do business._

_ "His askin' price is way too high!" The Doctor boomed back. Rose paused for a minute before laughing._

_ "Oh, you are so cheap, you are. You have all this money, but you refuse to pay for it because it's not the price you think it should be." Rose nudged her brooding alien, making him finally turn those glaring blue eyes on her. Rose had been privy to see a glimpse into the soldier the Doctor could be._

_ There use to be a young married couple who lived at the Estates when she was younger. The husband had been a soldier. Before the war he had brought his wife flowers every Friday, and chased off the rowdy blokes who got too handsy with Rose and the other girls. After the war though, something changed in him. He got dangerous, and Rose's mum warned her and Shireen and Keisha to stay away from him. Rose thought her mom was barmy, until he attacked his wife, thinking she was an enemy soldier, and then when he came to he had gone to the roof of the building and jumped off._

_ Sometimes she could see bits of that bloke in the Doctor, when his manic grin slipped and his real face came into view. It was in those moments that the Doctor appeared wholly alien, and completely terrifying, but Rose knew, though she couldn't name how, that if she flinched or showed fear in those moments the Doctor was likely to drop her back off at home and go back to his suicidal ways. Because that's what he was before she came along, suicidal. The Titanic and Pompeii, the Great Wars of Sandoo and the Destruction of Hans-Teldaga. And those were just the few she knew of, all places he knew he wasn't likely to walk out of again._

_ So when he glared at her, she knew she had nothing to fear, because she knew what he looked like when he was actually angry._

_ The dismal thoughts made her tug his arms apart so she could lace her fingers with his. He gave them up without a fight, he never struggled or pulled away when she wanted to hold his hand or hug him. She thought at first he was just a tactile person, like she was, but she learned quickly that he didn't really let anyone close enough to touch him. Just her._

_ "Want me to give it a go?" Rose asked, eyeing the portly little alien shopkeeper, who reminded her a bit of a walrus._

_ "Rose," The Doctor let out a long suffering sigh, pulling her attention back to him. His face clearly read 'if a brilliant alien such as meself couldn't do something, what makes you think a little stupid ape could?' Rose tilted her chin defiantly, and she watched his lips tilt upwards even as he rolled his eyes._

_ "Ten quid says I can get it."_

_ "Only if you get it for 100 credits." The Doctor countered back. Rose saluted him, a bit sarcastically, and shot forward into the crowd._

_ Rose could have gotten the part in about five minutes if she really wanted too, but she was well aware of the Doctor's eyes on her. So she made a show of it, making him wait, testing his patience, seeing how long until he tempted to storm into the shop. The shopkeeper, while resembling a walrus, was pleasant and helpful. She managed to get her mum a pretty beaded bracelet and the part, all for under a 100 credits._

_ Rose emerged from the store and started to make her way back towards the Doctor, happily swinging her little bag. The Doctor was right where she left him, arms back to being crossed over his chest and glaring up a storm._

_ Rose couldn't even pretend she hadn't gotten the purchase, she just held up the bag and grinned at him. The Doctor stood up straighter and graced her with his manic grin, the one that said he was so proud of her, though she didn't think she had done anything too impressive. She bounded into his open arms and they hugged and laughed like they had saved a planet._

_ The Doctor with all his manic grins aimed at her, and his penchant for long hugs and handholding, and all his 'I could save the world, but lose you' statements, how could she not fall arse over elbows for him?_

Rose woke to pain and light and sound and too much of everything, while simultaneously nothing. She knew her name, but not where she was or how she had gotten there or why she was in so much pain. Everything hurt, but she couldn't move a muscle. It was equal parts too bright and too dark, her overworked eyes shooting pain directly into her skull, which was throbbing already. Something was making an awful lot of noise, but her ears seemed to have a bubble around them.

Suddenly that bubble popped and if she had any control over her body she would have curled up into a ball and sobbed.

"Doctor!" A voice was screaming, whether female or male Rose couldn't identify.

"What are you yelling about?" Another, deeper and grumpier voice yelled back. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh, thought you'd like to know she appeared out of nowhere, but if you'd like to go back to your tea that's fine, go on, scamper." The voice was distinctively female, and Rose could make out a northern accent. The sound still made her want to cry because it was drilling a hole through her skull.

"Get her to med bay." A third voice spoke up, so familiar but different. Different then she remembered? Rose's head pounded harder and she whimpered.

"Is that what I do now?" This one was male, definitely male, and surprisingly Scottish. She didn't know why that was surprising. "Hold on you, I have to-" Rose was lifted off the ground, but it was too much and the blackness that had been swimming on the edges of her vision overtook everything.

"I'm really sick of passin' out." Rose grumbled, her words slurring together. She knew she ought to keep quiet, let herself adjust. If dimension travelling with a glorified canon had taught her anything it was to allow her body to adjust and not start moving or speaking right away. But that statement felt like it needed to be said, even if it was barely understandable with her thickened cockney accent twisting the words.

"Don't move too much, yeah?" There was that northern female accent again. Rose took a deep breath, which hurt, and then she opened her eyes and blinked in surprise at the dimness of the room. It was the TARDIS med bay, even though it had changed, but she knew that soft humming in her mind.

"Who're you?" Rose slurred, smacking her lips together and making a face because her mouth tasted fuzzy and altogether, this seemed like wholly unpleasant experience.

"Clara, Clara Oswin Oswald, wait- I don't know why I told you my whole name. Bit formal, that. Sorry, I'm babblin', just not every day you met- you." If Rose had been feeling any better she would have laughed, but that took too much energy so she just peered at the girl instead.

"Not every day you meet me? What's that mean?" Rose questioned, eye brows raised as her eyes focused enough to study the girl. She was pretty, actually she was rather gorgeous and adorable and apparently from the north, which was a plus in Rose's book. Clara Oswin Oswald had shoulder length straight brown hair, a lovely heart shaped face, and an attitude that meant she could be no other than the Doctor's new companion.

"I didn't say that, I did not say that." Clara glanced over her shoulder, looking a bit pained. Rose glanced over her shoulder and with a soft hum in her brain, she knew that the Doctor was listening in.

"Is that the Doctor out there? Skulkin' 'round?" Rose asked, attempting to tease him out of hiding.

"I do not skulk, Time Lords do not skulk, and look at me, do I look like a skulking man?" The Scottish voice fit this new man. He stood in the door way, his hands buried in his pockets, which was an old habit that seemed to carry with each new regeneration.

"Actually, this you kind of does." Clara answered, making Rose smile.

"Wasn't talking to you."

"Oi, rude!" Rose piped up.

"He is a bit, isn't he?" Clara asked, her eyes slightly narrowed. Rose knew that look, knew it hadn't been too long since the Doctor had regenerated, and Clara had been there to witness it.

"He's always rude, this is the fourth him I've known and rude, each and every one of 'em." Rose tried to push herself up, not enjoying laying down when this conversation was happening, but her vision swam and she slammed back onto the med bay bed with a groan.

"Maybe you just think I'm rude because I'm not a stupid pretty boy anymore." The Doctor was hovering in front of her, brows furrowed, a deep frown marring his features. Rose liked the accent, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was here with him, an older version of her.

"You're callin' yourself stupid?" Rose asked, though she sounded a bit breathless. It was then that she realized she couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into her lungs. She gripped for the Doctor but he pushed her hands away and placed a mask over her face.

"I'm calling my vainness of my youth stupid." The Doctor corrected, his long fingers pressing the mask against her face as his other hand pressed down her sternum, until her lungs expanded and she was able to breathe properly again.

"You think the last you was pretty?" Clara asked, though her face showed deep concern. More concern than a girl should show for another woman, whom she supposedly just met. But Clara was the Doctor's companion now, and she had stayed with him through a regeneration, so she was good at masking her panic.

The Doctor opened his mouth, and judging from the twist of his features he was about to say something very rude, but Rose's fingers had reached up, nearly of their own accord, and she was tracing the lines of his face. He was old, even older than her first Doctor, beat him by nearly a decade if she was to guess. Blue eyes with salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper, and a nearly all black wardrobe with a Scottish accent of all things. She wondered if she were to tease him about his accent this time if he would go on the defense again.

_"All planets have a Scotland!"_ Nah, didn't really have the same ring to it.

"Hullo." Rose said, though the oxygen mask garbled the word a bit, she still smiled around the fatigue and the pain as her fingers traced one of his eye brows.

"They are attack eye brows, aren't they Rose? You noticed, could cut glass with them." He raised them up and down, making Rose's hand fall away and she laughed. She caught just a glimpse of utter glee in those blue eyes before he was leaning away. "No, no, no, get out!"

"Rude, and not ginger. Once again." A teasing female voice said from the hallway before she breezed in. Rose finally understood why the voice had sounded familiar, but not, because she had really never heard her own voice projected at herself. She had lost some of the London accent, but it was still there, teasing the consonants of her words just as she teased the alien man beside her younger self's bed.

"So I am here." Rose felt her body relax.

"Oh no, please don't listen to me, just got over a thousand years of time travel knowledge and the only one in the multiverse with a sense for time, but please, go on ahead and cause a giant paradox." The Doctor shot both Rose's a dark look. "Again. Maybe the reapers will actually do a solid job this time and I won't come back."

"He thinks because he's Scottish now he has a reason to whinge all the time." The older Rose said, leaning against the door with a grin that showed she wasn't the least bit bothered by him. She actually looked older, though that didn't say much besides the point that she hadn't been seriously injured recently to active the Bad Wolf into healing her. She looked mid-thirties, and if she was allowed to admit this, she looked good. Her hair was a lot longer now, and held a gentle curl with a softer blonde color.

"If you two are done, she should get back to the younger version of me about now." The Doctor was glaring at the older Rose, but she just smiled back at him.

"Yes, you were beside yourself with worry." She teased him again.

"I was not! Though, you should tell that pointy chin boy that he should take better care of you." Rose was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, and she realized a moment too late that the Doctor had given her more than oxygen with the mask. She tried to give him a good accusing look, but then the older version of herself slipped up beside him, intertwining her fingers with his and placed a soft kiss on the older-looking Doctor's cheek. The Doctor's 'attack eye brows' stayed furrowed, but the corner of his mouth twitched and he gave the younger Rose a wink.

Rose, the younger one, got a good look at Clara's exasperated face before slipping into darkness once again.

_"Rose! Ah- you see, I was just- came in here to-" The Doctor began to babble nearly the instant Rose had walked into her fathers study, but Rose hardly paid any mind to his gob as she toed off her high heels before curling up on the small couch beside the Doctor. "Ah." He trailed off smartly, his whole body tense, as if still waiting for her disapproval for hiding away in a study while the party continued on downstairs. Once he realized he was in no real danger, his body relaxed, melting around her and pulling her closer simultaneously._

_ Rose let out a small breath of air as she played with the buttons on the Doctor's tuxedo jacket._

_ "'m sorry about these parties." Rose finally admitted, her legs curled up underneath her, though the position was slightly uncomfortable due to her red dress. Formal dresses weren't really meant for cuddling on couches._

_ "I thought you liked them?" The Doctor asked, his voice a gentle hum above her. She looked up at him, noting the look of content on his face before it was placed by confusion at the look she shot him. "No? You always seem to enjoy yourself."_

_ "Well, yeah, interestin' people and all, but a big formal party once a week? Bit much, even for me." Rose licked her lips and she watched with barely concealed amusement as the Doctor's eyes zeroed in on that little bit of pink. "Between Torchwood, these parties, and you gatherin' stuff for the TARDIS coral we hardly have seen each other." Rose found herself confessing, and she played with her earring as a nervous habit. He had said the words to her that she had so willingly been able to tell him on the beach in Norway, and he had stayed with her at her small flat, but sometimes old habits die hard. She was still not use to letting her true emotions about the Doctor spew forth from her mouth._

_ "We could, that is if you want, we could go together?" The Doctor tugged on his ear before leaning closer to Rose, he was suddenly very animated. "There's some soil that I think will have just the right composite to really help the TARDIS grow a bit faster, not only faster, but she'll be strong. Just a bit of jiggery pokery with the soil and BAM! She'll be fully formed in no time."_

_ "Soil?" Rose asked dubiously, but she was already making a packing list in her mind. She'd need time off, if she suddenly just left Torchwood might go out and find her, which would ruin their whole fun._

_ "The world, this world and our old world's, tallest tree is the coast redwood. It's one of the three sequoia tree species, all of which grow spectacularly big, but the coast redwood can grow up to 20 meters, Rose! That's 60 feet taller than the giant sequoia. Now don't give me that look, I don't know why they didn't name the largest tree the giant sequoia and the giant sequoia the not-so-giant-but-still-adequately-big sequoia, doesn't really matter." The Doctor lectured excitedly._

_ "And you want to gather some of the soil these redwoods grow in, and grow the TARDIS in it?" Rose questioned, a grin planted on her face. She had no idea where these redwoods were, but she knew nothing like that existed in Great Britain, so they'd at least be able to get away from the island for a bit._

_ "Yes, amongst other soils. There's a tree, a giant sequoia actually, that they named General Sherman, and they call it the 'largest living thing on the planet'. How lovely is that? He's over 100 feet wide around the bottom. And can you guess where these trees are, Rose?" His eyes were positively sparkling now. Rose thought over the bits of information she had already been given._

_ "You said it's called the coast redwood, so somewhere on a coast? You told me once that the TARDIS needed a dry place, so probably not South America or anywhere like the Amazon." Rose chewed her lip, trying to think of other coastal regions. There was Canada, but that seemed too cold of a place. "On the coast of the States?" Rose guessed and was rewarded with a positively beaming Doctor._

_ "California."_

_ "We're goin' to California?" Rose had visited the States a couple times. The first time was in her original world, with a different Doctor, but mostly she had just seen a basement of a compound in Utah. Then there had been watching Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in 1863, but she hadn't gotten to see much of the area before a lost alien that resembled a mix between a rhino and dragon trampled through the town and the Doctor and Rose had to gather him up in the TARDIS to take him back home. She had spent quite a bit of time with the States version of Torchwood when building the dimensional canon, but that was mostly in an underground facility in Nebraska._

_ "If you'd like." The Doctor offered, sounding nervous again as he ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in a way Rose quite adored._

_ "We're goin' to California!" Rose leaped into the Doctor's waiting arms and they both fell off the couch laughing._

Rose woke to a buzzing in her head and a beeping near her ear. She groaned and tried to push away the noises, wanting to go back to her dream. Or more accurately, her memory. They had gone to California, spent near two weeks exploring the coast. Just them, together, travelling and laughing and getting into spots of trouble. Then her mum had called, made them go back to London for a party. Then her half-human Doctor had been wiped from existence, along with him the TARDIS coral and any proof that she had even gone to California.

Rose did not want to think about that last bit, she just wanted to go back to sleep and remember snogging the Doctor on the floor between bits of planning their trip and laughter and light teasing. She did not want to deal with a heavy buzzing in her head and a loud beeping in her ear with too bright lights and her body aching with something more than just plain fatigue.

"Fuckin' stop it!" Rose shouted, unable to stop herself as she gave herself over to frustration and anger. As quickly as those volatile emotions had boiled up, they were gone, and she was left with an empty hollowness that was being quickly replaced by guilt for yelling at the time ship.

Then the bed collapsed from underneath her, tucking itself neatly into the wall and she was left sprawled out on the med bay floor, gasping for breath. Rose could feel the time ships own anger disappear as tears filled cognac colored eyes. Rose sat up with a wince, and wiped tiredly at her face.

"I know, 'm sorry too." Rose whispered, staring at the small metal heart that had been the only thing keeping her from being erased from this world. It looked broken and fried, just as it had been when she first had seen it in the Doctor's hand. There was a small, hesitant hum inside her brain and Rose pushed to her feet.

She knew the TARDIS would not have woken her up for nothing. Actually, Rose could feel worry replacing fatigue as she half-walked, half-stumbled down the corridor. The only reason the TARDIS would have interrupted her much needed rest was because the Doctor was losing it. Rose had no idea what the Doctor had gone through before the universe had tried to erase her, except that he had apparently married River Song. The thought still made Rose's stomach twist painfully.

Rose could already hear yelling from the console room. A distinctively female Scottish voice, enraged, but underneath that, confused and hurt. A soft male British voice, consoling, but underneath that, anger. A third female British voice, a mixture of both frustration and confusion. Rose picked up her pace because she did not hear a fourth voice, the Doctor's voice. Everything was fine until the Doctor went silent, that was when he was truly angry, and this regeneration did not handle anger in any healthy way.

So Rose pushed herself, even though she had already reached her limits days earlier. She couldn't remember the last time she had a proper sleep, let alone a real meal, but this was the Doctor, and he was hurting. If there was anything she could do, she'd do it. Even if that meant pushing herself past her breaking point, because after all, it's the same he'd do for her.

"I don't understand why you're taking us home, everything's fine now! We fixed it all!" Amy's voice shouted above everyone else.

"Amy, please, it's alright." Rory's voice was soft and soothing, but his fiery wife just ignored him and continued yelling at the Doctor.

"Sweetie, I know you're prone to overreacting, but even this is a bit much." River Song's voice teased. Rose walked out of the corridor and stood at the top of the stairs. The three companions surrounded the Doctor's as he continued to push buttons on the console without any of his usual explosive energy.

"You can't do this!" Amy shouted.

"This, Amelia Pond, is my TARDIS, and if I want to take you home and never come back, then that is what I will and am perfectly capable of doing." The Doctor had rounded on Amy, and Rose watched Rory's back straighten as he stood at Amy's back, ready to defend his wife it need be. Rose thought it was probably a good time to intervene before the Doctor started to become truly cruel.

"Doctor?" Rose spoke up, cringing at her own voice. It was raspy, as if she were getting over a particularly bad cold. As soon as Rose acknowledged that, she suddenly did feel quite stuffed up. She wrinkled her nose at the unpleasantness of nearly being erased from the universe, before her heart gave a painful squeeze.

Had it been like that for the half-human Doctor? She had been fully aware of what was happening, she had existed even as she was wiped out.

"Rose." Her name was breathed out in a ragged gasp before she was enveloped in a tight hug. His nose found the sensitive spot behind her ear and he took in a deep breath, as Rose wound her arms around his middle, not realizing until that moment just how much she needed that hug.

It had been a tough couple days in Cardiff, even before the universe tried to erase her. She had very nearly lost several people she had grown to care about, some of her only friends in the universe. It was then that she realized, fully came to the realization that she would most likely see each and every one of their deaths, and she'd very likely still look the same. Her, Jack, and the Doctor were now all in the same boat, but Jack and the Doctor had a couple centuries on her, they had already come to that realization a long while back, but it was new to Rose.

Then she had been roughly reminded about what her Doctor, the meta-crisis version, had gone through except he hadn't had a mad alien to save him. Just her, a too-slow, not-quite-human stupid ape who had slept through him disappearing.

Now there seemed to be yelling and anger, real true anger from everyone, and she hadn't a clue what was going on. But she had the Doctor's arms wrapped around her, holding her like she was something special, and all that other stuff faded into the background.

"I thought I had lost you." The Doctor breathed against her neck, making her whole body ache and tremble. Her arms tightened around him, at the despair coating his tone as he buried his face into the place where her neck met her shoulder. Rose lightly treaded her fingers through the soft strands of his hair. "I thought I had lost you, again." He shifted against her, moving so he could stare down at her and Rose completely froze.

Rose didn't pretend to know every aspect of the Doctor. She knew him, knew him better than most, but a lot remained a mystery. Like his name and actual age or who his first kiss was and did the title 'Doctor' mean the same on his home world as it did on hers? But Rose would have bet her right arm that the Doctor was going to kiss her.

Not just a small, chaste kiss either. He looked ready to push her up against the nearest wall and _ravage_ her. Rose had never seen that look in his eyes before, and her heart pounded faster in her chest, her fingers twisting in the fabric of his button up as she unconsciously titled her face up towards him.

"See? She's fine, sweetie." It was a bucket of ice water over the top of their heads. Rose's hands dropped and the Doctor took a step back. Gone was the passion from his eyes, replaced now with- fury? Rose decided to intervene before he could become cruel, which any of the Doctor's were prone to do when they got angry.

"Can someone explain to me what's goin' on?" Rose asked, her fatigue coming back to her full force as she turned from the Doctor to look at his companions. Her heart was still beating quickly away inside her chest, her body still warm from the look the Doctor gave her, but she needed to concentrate on the problem at hand. So she put her back towards the Doctor, not expecting any sort of real answer from him anyways, but she reached back blindly, and his fingers entwined with hers nearly instantly.

"We saved his life, and he's angry because it wasn't his idea!" Amy shouted, throwing her arms up in exasperation. Rose did admit that it did sound like something the Doctor would do, but that usually didn't drive him to the point where he became so angry he became nasty, past the point of his regular rudeness.

Rose felt the Doctor take a step forward, but she pushed her back against his front in a silent plea for him to remain quiet. Rose didn't want the fiery redhead to be hurt and she did not want to deal with the Doctor's guilt over hurting his best friend. She needed the story from the most unbiased person in the room. So she looked at Rory with hope.

"The Doctor invited us all to his own death," Rory said, biting out the words before taking a deep breath and looking away. "They- those Silence people- they stuck River in a machine, and was going to make sure she killed the Doctor. Except she didn't."

"She created a massive paradox, ripping a hole in the very fabric of time." The Doctor said in a low, dangerous tone, his body nearly vibrating behind Rose.

"To slow the rapid decay of the universe, it started erasin' things. Places, people-"

"Time itself. Same time of day, same day- over and over again. Time had stopped." The Doctor agreed, sounding a bit proud of Rose's conclusion despite his rage. Rose didn't have the heart to tell him that she only knew that because the universe had attempted to erase her, though she knew that conversation had to happen. They were in a circular paradox right then. She was only standing there because a future version of her Doctor had gone back to save her.

"I couldn't let you die." River argued, and Rose felt the push of the Doctor's body against hers, as if he was about to sweep down on River at any time.

"Yes you could have, and you should have!" The Doctor roared. Rose winced at the shout in her ear, and the Doctor stepped back, breaking all contact with the blonde. "You should have let me die, because my death was a fixed point in time. You cannot mess with a fixed point in time, River Song, you know that very well."

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you're wrong. You're much too important to lose." River said softly, as if speaking to a child. Rose chanced a look at the Doctor, and she registered the shock on his face before seeing guilt in those ancient green eyes of his.

"Not more important than the universe. It wouldn't have mattered if you saved me, this universe would have collapsed in on itself. Everything would be gone, including me, in the end. You'd have killed an entire universe, and for what? Some childish dream that-"

"Doctor." Rose broke in before he could hurt River more, or before Amy or Rory could intervene on their daughter's behalf. The Doctor turned those ancient eyes on her, and she felt the mad energy of him solely focused on her. The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds- all those titles displayed in one look.

Rose thought she might have gone a little crazy with all she had seen and been through, because instead of high tailing it out of there like any sane person would have done, she just wanted to hug him. Some of that softness inside of her must have showed because the Bringer of Darkness disappeared and he was just the Doctor again. Goofy, baby giraffe, centuries year old alien who looked more tired than angry now.

"We've been looking for you for a week now." Rory spoke up, forcing Rose's eyes away from the Doctor.

"A week?" Rose asked, but then shook her head because time wasn't really relative to her anymore. "Wait, how did you get time to reset itself? You're not dead and the universe seems alright."

"We were married, by Gallifreyan standards." River spoke up. Rose stared down at the woman, and she realized for the first time that it wasn't Doctor River Song, or even Professor River Song she was talking to. This River Song was newly regenerated, she was a lot younger than she looked, and she hadn't been out of the hands of the Silence for very long.

It would have been easy to crush this River Song. A couple words, a simple look, and that's all it would take. Rose knew her 19 year old self, fresh off the Estates, would not have hesitated in the way she did now. It wasn't that her younger self was cruel, not by any stretch, but she was defensive and she hated people looking down at her, like River clearly did now. Rose liked the woman when she became Doctor River Song. She was clever and cheeky and she didn't take anyone's shite, and Rose didn't want to risk her future friendship with the other woman in a moment of jealousy and anger.

Because Rose understood where River was coming from, she really did. River was ripped from her parents by a religious organization hell bent on destroying the Doctor. Rose had no idea what had been done to River, or what they had told her, but her entire existence revolved around the Doctor from her very conception. River never had a chance to be a kid, never had a childhood or a rebellious phase. She had guns and seduction training. They took a little girl and they made her into a weapon, not even a person, just a thing they directed in the Doctors area and they waited.

But River Song had fought past that, and she was still fighting it now. She was raised to kill the Doctor and she ended up madly in love with him. Then Rose had blundered in and everything went pear shaped.

"Someone will later explain to me how that allowed the universe to reset itself, but for now I need to see Jack." Rose turned towards the surprised Doctor. "You said it yourself, the universe erased anything non essential outside of London, and it started with anomalies, such as Jack."

"And you," The Doctor spoke softly, taking a step towards her and reaching up. With swift fingers he moved aside the collar of her blouse. Rose didn't need to look down to know that she had some pretty impressive bruises right below her clavicle, where the machine had been attached to her.

"I need to see him, to make sure he's okay." Rose said, trying to ignore how her heart picked up the pace when the Doctor neared her, a softness in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher.

"He was the first person I visited when we went looking for you." The Doctor cupped her face gently, and Rose's eyes automatically closed as she leaned into his touch. "He said the cloister bells started to go off in the TARDIS, and you two took off running. You made it into the TARDIS before it just disappeared, and not in the way my ship is meant to disappear. None of his team could even remember you existed."

"I'm okay." Rose opened her eyes and spoke firmly, because the Doctor was looking at her like he had when she had told him she would stay with him forever. Like she was running on borrowed time, like she was about to die and didn't even know it yet. "You came and saved me. Well you and the Bad Wolf and the TARDIS. It was a group effort, and I mean that in every way possible." Rose's grin turned wolfish as she fingered the lapels of his jacket, thinking of the multi-colored, multi-patterned one he had worn when he had curly blonde hair. _Blonde hair!_ The thought made Rose laugh, which felt rusty, but good at the same time.

"Rose?" The Doctor questioned her, looking curious and confused, but that cold fury had been driven away by her gleeful thoughts of his past regenerations.

"Not to break up this little moment, but are you still going to drop us off back on Earth?" Amy asked, arms crossed and standing directly behind them now. Rose felt her cheeks burning as she turned around to see the Doctor's three companions standing behind them. Amy looked furious, Rory exasperated, and River- oh River looked hurt.

"Yes, thank you for reminding me Pond!" The Doctor took off down the stairs and starting bounding around the console.

"Doctor, please-"

"No River, you are going back to where you belong. You nearly destroyed an entire universe without a shred of guilt." The Doctor was carefully not looking at River.

"She did it for you! We all did it for you!" Amy bellowed.

"And don't you see that's exactly why you need to go back?" The Doctor yelled back. "I can't have my companions thinking they can make those types of decisions for me."

"You make those kinds of decisions for us all the time," Amy countered, following the tweed covered alien around the console. He stopped suddenly, making Amy slam right into him as he turned around to her.

"Because, Amelia Pond, I am in the better position to make more informed decisions than any of you lot. I know you look at me, point chin, silly bow-tie wearing mad alien with a space-and-time ship and all you see is your imaginary friend from childhood and your best friend from adulthood, but you forget what I am. I am a Time Lord, the last of my kind, over a millennium, and for the majority of that I have been travelling. Sometimes with other people, sometimes not. I have survived for over 900 years without you, and I will do fine after you leave." The Doctor ground out. Amy's face had lost all color, and the pale girl didn't have much color to lose in the first place. Rory looked particularly livid, so Rose stepped in before anything more hurtful could be said.

"Amy, he can see the strands of time. He knows exactly how each decision will effect everything around it, and he can better make decisions because of that. Time Lord isn't just a pretentious name they gave themselves, it actually means what he is." Rose intervened softly.

"Yes, right, I knew what I was doing on that beach, and I needed you lot to trust me enough to let me do what needed to be done. You didn't, so it's off back home with you." The Doctor started to pull levers, until Rory snorted.

"That's rich, coming from you, speaking about trust. You don't trust anyone." The Doctor shot a quick look over to Rose before clearing his throat.

"We were married, Doctor." River spoke up finally. The Doctor turned to her, backing up when he realized how close she had gotten and knocked right into Amy.

"In an abandoned timeline, where I wasn't even me! It was a suit controlled by little men that looked like me. And I wouldn't have had to go that far if you'd just had let me fix it." The Doctor scowled. Rose sighed and rubbed her throbbing temple.

"Do you want me to have a look at those?" Rory asked quietly from beside her, motioning to her chest.

"No, ta though. The Doctor looked them over, they don't even really hurt- and they look like they've already healed by a couple days. Not this Doctor," Rose amended after Rory's confused look. "A future one, he's regenerated."

"Better than this one?" Rory asked, only half-serious.

"Ruder, if possible." Rory and Rose shared a small laugh before their attention was pulled back to the serious situation at hand.

"We were trying to save you." Amy was arguing again.

"By destroying the entire universe?" And the Doctor was back to yelling.

"Oh stop it, you're not even mad about that bit, you'd have forgiven that because it's fine now, it's fixed. It's because of her that you're dumping us all off." Amy shot back, nodding over in Rose's direction. Rose froze and heard Rory sigh next to her.

"Amy, don't bring Rose into this, she hasn't done anything, she wasn't even a part of all of this." Rory tried, which was really the wrong way to go, though Rose appreciated the sentiment.

And suddenly everyone was yelling at once. Rose suddenly regretted her decision to interrupt; she should have let the Doctor be characteristically rude. Amy, Rory, and River were clearly all use to it, and given time they'd forgive him for whatever he had said. It wasn't like her to just stand back, but she was so tired now, and somehow all this mess had come up her fault. She didn't want to feel bad for River Song, she didn't want to be hurt over Amy's rejection, and she didn't want poor Rory getting caught up in the middle.

Rose stepped back until the back of her thighs hit the jumper seat, and she sat down on it with some relief. Rose watched and listened to them shout and argue, but ultimately the Doctor won out. Of course he had to promise, swear up and down on everything he loved, that he would be back in a weeks time. An Earth-relative weeks time too, none of his 'alien nonsense' as Amy so eloquently put it.

"I guess I should be congratulatin' you." Rose spoke up once they were back in the vortex, and alone in the console room.

"Rose," The Doctor wrung his hands out in front of him.

"It may have just been the means to an end for you, a way to set the universe right, but it wasn't to River and you were bein' particularly cruel to her." Rose said, her voice coming out a bit more clipped and colder than she had meant it to. But then again, she was a bit hurt too. The Doctor took up a defensive posture near the console.

"Just like you, Rose Tyler, defending a woman who doesn't care about you at all." That hurt, and the Doctor knew it, but he wasn't about to apologize and Rose wasn't about to back down.

"Of course she doesn't, she's a bloody psychopath!" Rose rubbed her temples and suddenly all her anger drained out of her, leaving her feeling tired and hurt. Physically hurt, yes, her whole body ached, but she was mentally and emotionally spent too. Her eyes burned with unshed tears that she refused to let the Doctor see, let alone let them fall. "She was taken from her family and raised to be a weapon and because they wrapped her so wonderfully around your own time line you couldn't go back and help her without causing a massive paradox. So you found her, but the damage is already done, and she loves you and hates herself. Someday she'll become brilliant Professor Song, and after that an even more brilliant Doctor Song, and she'll be fierce and independent and so undeniably clever, but right now she's just a lost little girl who needed you to be her hero, and you crushed her."

Rose took a deep breath and looked up at the bright, rounded ceiling of the TARDIS console room, so far up above her. A spiraling staircase winding its way to the top levels. She let the old girls soothing hum wrap around her exhausted mind, and admitted to something she had been trying to keep very close to her chest.

"I love you Doctor, so I really understand how she feels about you, I truly do. I have loved you when you were northern and insultin' and so unbelievably sad, I couldn't understand, not back then, how someone so completely amazin' could be so incredibly sad. And I missed him, that version of you so much, because you changed and you became flirty and so secretive, and you abandoned me for French mistresses, but I still loved you because you made me laugh and you made me feel special. I loved you when you were half human with a bit of Donna Noble in there, and his obsession with those horrible rag magazines and how he would disappear for a week then show up, covered in dirt and cuts and then drag me to whatever brilliant thing he found. Doctor- I think I'd even love you even if you regenerated into an old bloke with gray hair and a Scottish accent." Rose couldn't help but smile at this.

"And now, Rose Tyler?" The Doctor had moved closer during her speech, her confession, and was so close she could reach out and brush her fingers against the buttons on his jacket.

"Does it matter?" Rose asked, heart in her eyes as she looked up at him. "Did it ever matter?" She couldn't help but whisper the last question, not knowing if she really wanted an answer. Rose knew what would come next, avoidance, and she was feeling far too vulnerable to let him be the one initiating it, so she took that step instead. "We have to go back to Torchwood."

"What?" The Doctor looked confused, his constant moves stilling, before he rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "I told you, Jacks just fine."

"I was more talking about Owen." Rose said, wiping quickly at her eyes as the Doctor turned away from her and back to the console.

"Oh yes, _him_." The Doctor sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll go see what I can do for him, but you're not coming."

"Excuse me?" Rose asked, feeling a bit of anger well up.

"Rose," The Doctor turned to her after a jarring landing. "You're exhausted, you're likely to make yourself extremely ill if you continue on like this. You need rest. I will go see what I can do for Owen Cooper- no Rose, no arguing. It'll be a lot of testing, drawing blood, taking x-rays, getting a hold of whatever bloody machine Jack used to reanimate him, testing that, x-raying that. There is no need for you to run yourself into the ground for this." Rose stared at the Doctor for a long time, but he was clearly set in this, and Rose didn't feel much up to arguing.

"Fine, but if anything happens." Rose gave him a warning look before slipping off of her seat and shuffling her way down the corridor to her room.

Rose thought her mind wouldn't allow her an ounce of sleep after the confession she had just made to the Doctor, but she was asleep even before she had gotten fully settled in bed.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

"Hullo Jack," Rose said around her giggling when she woke up to find Jack nearly crushing her to himself in her bed. Rose shifted a bit, getting into a better position before letting out a contented noise and settling against Jack.

"Mornin' Rose." Jack greeted back, but something in his tone made Rose draw back and look at him.

"Did somethin' happen with Owen?" Rose asked worriedly, soothingly brushing Jack's longer-than-normal hair off of his forehead. He didn't even have any product in it.

"The Doctor, well he couldn't fix him properly, make him the way he was before, but he made him better. Made it so he could feel and heal and all that." Jack hedged, closing his eyes and letting Rose mother him a bit. Rose could see guilt all over his handsome face.

"Poor Jack, you had to put up with two rude Doctors for who knows how long." Rose cooed, knowing better than to try and push Jack into telling her what was wrong, and clearly something was very wrong.

"Something else happened Rosie, something bad. Everyone's- well, they are fine for the most part. Alive, but I won't be going back to Torchwood. I was thinking about travelling again." Jack admitted softly, his arms tightening around her and Rose made a soft noise as she cuddled him gently.

"You're goin' to come with me and the Doctor?" Rose asked excitedly, letting it show in her tone just how much that would please her. She felt Jack smile against her throat. Rose felt a bit bad, because as much as she loved Jack and would love to have him to travel with again, she knew he would also be a bit of a buffer. She was well rested now and felt much better, and that meant she could remember everything she had said in her sleep-deprived state.

"No, no I don't think he'd like that very much." Rose made a rude noise and she felt Jack's body shake with laughter.

"He didn't really want you to come the first time, did he? And look how well he likes you now, he can get over the whole 'you rub against my time sense wrong' or whatever bothers him. He booted his other companions out, the Ponds, and- and I would really like it if you came." Rose pushed Jack back gently and he turned on his back, sighing and grinning up at her as she hovered over him, scrutinizing his face.

"Rose, we're all very much aware that the Doctor wouldn't say no to you."

"Jack-" Rose admonished, her cheeks burning.

"No Rose, this is- well it's fucking stupid, you two. You obviously love him, and he clearly has always been madly in love with you so I don't understand why you two don't just fu-"

"Jack!" Rose yelled, hitting him with a pillow and making him laugh.

"I understood before, the whole you being human and him being immortal, but now you've got that going for you too, so what the hell are you two waiting for?" Jack asked seriously, setting in and giving her his best captain look. Rose sighed, not knowing at all how the questioning had turned back around on her.

"He's different now, he had time to move on-"

"Rose, stop, just listen to me for a second. That alien, no matter how he looks, is always going to be in love with you. Do you think he's helping Owen out of the kindness of his hearts? Or that he stayed around long enough to save- to save us back there, when we had done everything possible to disappoint him. The Doctor is different, yeah, he's somehow gotten even angrier and he hides it behind that puppy dog, mad professor face and attitude, because sometimes it doesn't even seem like he cares who gets hurt, and I understand that Rose, I really do. You, no matter how old you get, will always care, but it's different for me and the Doctor." Jack admitted, refusing to meet her eyes.

"You care Jack, and so does the Doctor." Rose argued.

"We care about certain things, certain people, but anyone else outside that very small circle, it doesn't matter what happens to them. Something happened between the time he lost you and when he got you back, you're making him better, but he's still- he's a bit broken. He knows that, and he doesn't want you to become something he breaks. You'll just have to trust me on this one." They both sat leaning against the headboard, caught up in their own thoughts.

"I love you both," Rose admitted softly, causing Jack to pull her into a tight hug.

"And we love you, probably more than is healthy. You got my number, you need me for anything I'll come running."

"Same for you." They hugged before Jack pushed himself up and walked out of her room.

As much as Rose wanted to mope around in bed for a day or seven, she knew that would never do. She needed to fix things with the Doctor, tell him she could just be his mate again, nothing more than a travelling companion. It might be a lie now, but with time, it might grow to be true.

But first, a shower was in order. After she had cleaned up she dressed in jeans, yellow trainers, and a Led Zepplin tour t-shirt that her second Doctor had surprised her with after they had to deal with an Antivizin invasion and missed the concert. Rose would have been more disappointed about missing what everyone always said was Led Zepplin's best performance, but Antivizin happened to be small little balls of fluff with tiny little arms and huge eyes that hummed when they were pleased. It had been the most adorable invasion Rose had ever experienced.

Rose was walking down the corridors blindly, as most of her attention was on trying to get her hair to comply into a braid-like shape, but it wasn't listening to her. So when she ended up in the galley, where the Doctor was leaning over the oven, making something that actually smelled quite pleasant, she wasn't all that surprised.

"You're going to pull out all your hair if you do it that way," The Doctor commented after glancing at her when she let out a frustrated groan.

"I could have sworn I use to be good at this, mums a hairdresser, I could do braids in my sleep." Rose grumbled as she tugged on her hair. The Doctor wiped his hands on his apron, a frilly thing that had probably been a nice pink color but now was mostly covered in unidentifiable stains and burn marks. He motioned to a seat and Rose sat down obediently.

"Ah- right, yes I've got it." The Doctor exclaimed excitedly after several moments of silence and him running his fingers through her hair. In a few swift moves her hair was pulled back into a simple fishtail braid. "Your hair has gotten quite long."

"Yeah, no wonder you have no idea how old you are, gets a bit muddled after a while, doesn't it?" Rose touched her hair lightly, looking at the ends and wondering how bad her roots were.

"That's a bit insulting, Rose Tyler, I know exactly how old I am." Rose gave him a challenging look as he thought it over. "Well, it's not exactly fair, is it? I've had some years taken away, hidden, replaced, some that never existed. There was one regeneration that went a bit side-ways and I had a terrible memory that entire time."

"Was that the one with the techni-colored dream coat? Or- oh, the one with the twenty foot long scarf?" Rose questioned cheekily, making the Doctor nearly drop his spatula as he put an omelet on a plate before placing it in front of her. "Meet a few of your past selves, actually all of them. You came to save me from being erased, and then the universe decided that was a bit shite so it tried to erase you too." Rose took a bite of the omelet and nearly groaned. "This is gorgeous!" She fell on it, not realizing how hungry she actually was until half of it was gone.

"You saw all my different bodies?" The Doctor asked after she was finished with her food, he placed a cup of orange juice in front of her and she downed that quickly.

"Yes, bit of a fetish for pretty faces, yeah?" The Doctor blustered as Rose laughed. "I guess you should get to it, yeah? Savin' me. I could go see Jack, no it's fine Doctor, you don't have to look like that."

"It's always something with us, isn't it?" The Doctor suddenly looked ages older as he slumped in his seat. Rose stood and walked around the table, to the Doctor's side, and she gently ran her fingers through the soft strands of his hair. He leaned against her touch, and she briefly let herself enjoy the feeling before she forced herself away, grabbing the dirty dishes to take them to the sink, and thinking of making a cuppa.

She heard the squeak of the chair, thought that the Doctor might be moving to the console room to start working on a sequence to save her past self. He would have to find a way to merge both TARDIS' without tearing the universe apart, the poor thing was still trying to piece itself back together after River Song had her way with it. But Rose was surprised when she felt the soft brush of his jacket against her back.

Rose turned and couldn't help the small noise of surprise that escaped her upon realizing how close the Doctor had gotten without her notice. Her treacherous heart beat quicker, pumping blood through her veins at an alarming rate that made her entire body heat up, just by his close proximity, and the look in those ancient green eyes.

"Doctor," Rose chewed her bottom lip nervously, and she saw his eyes drift down. _Once more_, she thought with wary humor. She would try just once more to let him know how she felt, and then she would drop it, this time for good.

While Rose Tyler was gathering her courage, trying to dredge up some the recklessness of her 19 year old self, the Doctor lowered his head, tilting it to the side and his breath ghosted over her face. Rose's brain simply stopped functioning at that point.

"Tell me no, shake your head, push me away, anything Rose, any sign that you do not want this and I will back away." The Doctor said, holding his entire body, his whole being just a breath away from hers. She could feel the heat from him and smell the mint tea on his breath. Every atom of her being reached out to him, but she couldn't seem to move. Couldn't seem to reach out or speak up or anything, her mind and body coming to a stuttering stop at this moment she thought would never happen. "Rose?" He was even closer now, but still not touching her. There was a hated distance between them, a questioning look in his eyes which she wanted to dissuade him of.

"No." She was so close to him, studying his eyes as they peered into hers, that she saw the wave of despair come over him before he quickly shut it off, shut her out. He was backing away and Rose gasped in a breath. "No!" She couldn't help but say again, grabbing his lapels and pulling him forward. She registered shock in those green depths before their mouths were pressed together.

It wasn't at all how Rose had pictured their first kiss to be, nothing like the one shared with her half human Time Lord on the beach. It was clashing teeth and bumping noises.

"Sorry," Rose said instantly, rubbing her nose, but letting her other hand remain clutching his jacket. The Doctor was grinning though, grinning at her like she was something fantastic, and that had Rose giggling at her mistake. Maybe she had channeled her 19 year old self too well, all grabby hands and clashing mouths. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, touching his nose lightly, but he laughed. A real laugh too, and Rose couldn't help but grin at that no matter how embarrassed she was.

"Never apologize for kissing me, Rose Tyler." The way he said her name, and how close they were now made a slow shiver run down Rose's spine. He smiled like he knew the effect he was having on her, his eyes sparkling like it was a pleasant surprise he had just found out, like he hadn't known he had this effect on her since he was leather and she was still completely human. "Should we- uh- that is to say, um-" The Doctor fumbled, turning back into his usual clumsy self and Rose let out a breathless laugh.

"Yes, let's try that again." Rose suddenly looked up at him sternly. "For scientific purposes."

"Oh naturally, you cannot test a hypothesis by conducting one experiment." The Doctor agreed gravely. Rose had to fight to keep the smile off her face, but she failed miserably when he leant down and brushed his lips against hers.

"Yes, several tests must be made, control groups and all that need to be sorted." Rose tilted her head just a bit as the Doctor came down for another, soft kiss.

"And we need to ask ourselves if the procedure is working correctly, and if not to troubleshoot the procedure, and _carefully_ check all the steps for the tests we are conducting." The Doctor's voice was quite even, until the last word, until Rose placed her hand gently between his two hearts, and that last word came out shaky.

"Then we need to-" Rose lost her words as the Doctor's hand worked its way through her still wet hair, coming to gently cup the back of her head.

"We need to what?" The Doctor asked, a grin stretching his lips and making him look quite full of himself.

"We need to analyze the data and draw a conclusion, and see if the results align with our original hypothesis or not." Rose could hardly believe herself, knew that if her younger self was here she would be positively groaning. She was flirting with science, and it was making her breathless. The Doctor was making her breathless.

"And if it doesn't, we take the experimental data and that will become background research for our new project." Rose had no idea how he made the words 'new project' sound filthy, but he did. Her eyes flicked up to his, and she licked her lips. He was ready, she could see that, but he was waiting for her.

Rose brought her lips against his once again, though far slower and gentler this time. It was like the first time they had hugged, or held hands. There wasn't the instant fit that had been there with her previous Doctor's, but a small adjustment from him, a tiny movement from her, and they found that they still fit together quite well.

After only a slight hesitation, Rose pressed her body firmly against his. Curves to angles, softness to hardness- and then she was letting out a small gasp when his hand found the small of her back and was pulling her even closer, pressing himself into her. The Doctor took her parted lips as an invitation, sweeping his tongue in just the barest amount, questioning, asking permission but not demanding. Rose slid one hand through his hair, tilted her head just a bit more, and gave him a solid answer to that question.

"Wait," It came out as a breathy request that Rose could barely even hear herself, but the Doctor's motions stilled instantly and he pulled back just a bit. Rose mourned the loss, but she let her body come to terms with what her mind was screaming at her. "S-sorry, just need a mo'." Rose blushed furiously at the shakiness of her voice.

"Do you want me to-" The Doctor pulled back another centimeter, but Rose pulled him back quickly, shaking her head and feeling embarrassed with her clinginess. "What is it?" The Doctor ended the sentence in his home language, the soft lilt of Gallifreyan caressing the words in a way no other language could. She didn't know what the words meant, but she knew the inflection, knew the look in his eyes that accompanied them. It was an endearment and it made her whole body heat up.

"What brought this on? If this is just you tryin' to put some distance between River and yourself-" The Doctor was already shaking his head, his body becoming tense underneath her hands.

"I feel responsible for River, I am the reason she didn't have a nice normal childhood. I'm the reason Amy and Rory were denied the right to raise her, to watch her grow older and cleverer and she would have been so brilliant, they all would have. If I had just left- if I hadn't come back for them, none of this would have happened." The Doctor's body was rigid and tense against her own, and Rose cursed herself for ruining the moment, but she knew they had to talk about this, because if he decided to pull away after this, she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to recover fully.

"So you married her?"

"I asked her if her suffering would be worse than the billions of lives being lost, if her suffering over losing mew would be worse, and she said yes." There was true anguish in his eyes. "No one person is meant to be that important."

"Doctor, The Silence is who took her and turned her into what she is-"

"The Silence wouldn't even have existed without me."

"Neither would have thousands of planets, billions of people! Doctor, I would be dead if it wasn't for you in that department store basement. Maybe humans would have learned how to fight back against the Autons, but how many lives would have been lost? And what about all the alien invasions that have happened, or were goin' to happen before you stopped them? And that's just on Earth alone." Rose blew out a raspberry, making the Doctor grin and lean his forehead against hers. "You look at nothin' but the bad and of course it's goin' to look bad, Doctor, but you're so much more than that."

"My Rose Tyler," He chuckled and leaned down to brush his lips against hers, making our whole body thrum in pleasure just from that little contact alone.

"Doctor-" Rose said his name in a half exaggerated fashion, drawing out the title in annoyance and making him grin against her mouth.

"I'm not going anywhere Rose, I've been waiting a long time for you to be ready." His voice was rough and husky, and he bent down to kiss her fully, deciding that the topic was closed for discussion. Rose responded enthusiastically before his words clicked in her head and she pulled back, making him groan and her laugh.

"You've been waitin' for me?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Yes, very patiently, might I add." He leaned closer again but Rose pulled back, frowning. "Rose."

"You've been waitin' for me to be ready?" Rose asked again, just to clarify things.

"Yes, that is what I've said, three times now." The Doctor leaned forward again, but was distracted by Rose's sudden laughter. He frowned down at her, though the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.

"Oh you stupid bloody alien, I've been waitin' for you to be ready! Didn't think it was ever goin' to happen." Rose admitted once her laughter had subsided.

"Me? You've been waiting on me? Rose, I have been wanting to do this for a long time, you're the one who needed time to adjust." The Doctor spoke as if she was being particularly slow.

"Yeah? How do you figure that?" Rose asked, merely curious.

"First I had to wait for you to get over the whole time and space travelling aspect-"

"Wait, that means the first you-" The Doctor bent down and crushed his lips against hers, making her words die in her throat as her whole body heated up and her hands gripped him.

"No interrupting." The Doctor said huskily, though Rose thought she might have to interrupt a few more times if that was his punishment towards her interruptions. "Then I had to wait for you to get over Mickey Smith, then there was Adam and Jack and a number of other pretty boys that made me think you didn't really want me, and then you came back for me, burning from the inside out. But then I regenerated, and you didn't seem to want anything to do with me."

"Then there was Sarah Jane Smith and Mickey Smith, again, and Cleopatra and Madame de Pompadour-"

"You lost Mickey Smith and your alternative-father rejected you, and then I nearly lost you to the Wire and I thought- I definitely thought it'd happen after that." Rose thought back to that night and blushed.

"But my mum called and demanded we come home for her birthday. And right after that Korp Tor happened."

"And I was so focused on losing you that I forgot to just enjoying myself. Then shortly after that Torchwood happened and I lost you, what I thought, was for good." The Doctor caressed her cheek, making her shiver and press herself closer to him, smiling at the newfound knowledge that she could do that now, that he wanted her to and encouraged her with a satisfied smile.

"But I came back to you," Rose reminded him with a smile before that fell away. "Then there were two of you."

"And we couldn't exist together, it would cause a paradox, so I sent you away because your family was in that universe and I thought you'd be happier with him. I'm so sorry Rose, I didn't know-" It was Rose's turn to cut him off with a kiss. It was soft and chaste, but when she pulled away he followed her and that made her smile.

"Why didn't you snog me when you first saw me?" Rose wondered, speaking when he would have kissed her.

"Shock, surprise, disbelief. For a while I didn't believe it was actually you, but then I did, and then I learned what I put you through in that other universe. Then Amy was plastic and was being used like a-" The Doctor sucked in a deep breath, anger flashing in his eyes and Rose hugged him closer. "You always pulled away."

"Because you always looked like you were about to bolt!" Rose countered, scowling at him. The Doctor chuckled against her and she couldn't keep the scowl in place, not when he was so close to her, wrapped up in each other, and her lips still tingled with the feel and taste of him.

"Not going anywhere." He said something in his native tongue, something that had Rose's body flushing and she suddenly found herself kissing him once again.

"What is that?" Rose gasped as they broke apart and there was a loud alarm going off, lights flashing, the TARDIS humming angrily.

"Cloister bells, alarm setting." The Doctor winced and sighed and placed his forehead against hers all in one movement that nearly had her grinning, except the alarm was really quite loud. "You said I go back and save you, well that makes a circular paradox. You're only here because I went back and saved you, so I have to go back." Rose nodded, knowing all this already.

"And I can't be here with you when it happens." Rose said knowingly, smiling a little to ease the look of worry on his face. "So where are you goin' to drop me? If I can request, someplace sunny." She was grinning at him now, trying to get some sort of reaction out of him.

"Someplace sunny," The Doctor mumbled before taking a deep breath and straightening up. "Yes, someplace sunny, I've got the perfect place! Even you, jeopardy friendly as you are, will have a hard time digging up trouble."

"Oi!" Rose was about to retaliate, but the Doctor dodged out of her arms and down the hall. Rose let out a soft noise of surprise before she heard something crash in the hall and the Doctor's groan.

**A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait (I seem to apologize for that a lot…) but me and this chapter had to go a couple rounds, neither of us were pleased with the other person. But I do hope you like it! Now there are two more chapters until this story is complete, it will be jumping ahead a bit to a re-write of the 50****th**** Anniversary and Rose Tyler won't be the only added-in character, so I hope you will like that chapter! Thanks so much for your support, and I really do appreciate and love all the reviews and favorites.**


	15. Chapter 15

"I think we should go pick up Clara, she'd probably fancy a trip." Rose offered as the Doctor slid out from underneath the TARDIS console where he had been finishing up some repairs. Rose swung her legs back and forth while she sat on the jump seat, a contented look etched into her features. The Doctor was missing his jacket and vest, only clad in his cotton button up and braces, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, while Rose wore some fuzzy yellow pajama bottoms and a vest top.

It had taken two cups of tea for Rose to wake up enough to breach this conversation. Mostly she had just sat back, warm mug in hand, and watched the Doctor bounce from one repair to another. Watching idly as he stripped off one piece of garment after another, using her mug to hide her grin as he shot her looks like he knew exactly what she was thinking of, and he agreed fully with it.

"We just dropped her back off, and she's got that new job." The Doctor dismissed the idea, sounding a bit miffed as to how Clara could possibly want to go home when she could travel anywhere in the universe. Rose resisted the urge to grin and instead leaned forward to wrap her fingers around one of his braces and pulled him forward. The Doctor went to her without a fight, grinning down at her when he came to stand between her legs.

"That was over four months ago Doctor, and we have a time machine." Rose reminded him, running her fingers lightly over the brace before tweaking his bowtie. It was brown with little blue dots, something she had picked up for him that reminded her of his past body and his blue and brown ties. "We could pick her up a week from when we dropped her off, take her out for a celebration for surviving her first week as a teacher." The Doctor leaned forward, playing with the end of one of her braids and using it to tickle her face.

"I think that sounds like a brilliant idea." The Doctor exclaimed happily, letting out a soft hum of appreciation as he leaned down to kiss Rose. Rose tilted her head just slightly, allowing the kiss to go deeper and watching as all her thoughts scattered like marbles across the ground. The kiss was slow and leisurely, until the Doctor cupped her bum and pulled her closer into the heat of his body.

"Doctor," Rose couldn't help the moan, anymore than she could help pushing her hands into his thick hair, pressing her own body more firmly against his.

The TARDIS let out a warning shrill and they both broke apart. Rose grinned as The Doctor took off to dash around the TARDIS.

"I'll leave a call at her school, she'll love it. Where do you think we should go?" Rose was quite satisfied to hear the raspy quality of the Doctor's voice, and knew both of them would not have minded continuing on with their previous activity, but the TARDIS had just one rule, no sexual activities in the console room.

"Ancient Mesopotamia? That's what she's teachin', bet she'd love to pop in for a visit." Rose slid off of the jump seat after the TARDIS had landed.

"And after we can go to Mars! Future Mars of course, nothing too spectacular about Mars during the early 21st century." The Doctor seemed to wince at something involving the mention of Mars. Rose only knew that he had visited it during his past body, and it had not ended well, but Rose believed with the added company of herself and Clara they could replace the bad memories with some good ones.

"Fantastic, I'll just go change, you leave coordinates for Clara to find us because clearly just picking her up after school would be too normal for you two." Rose said, a teasing tongue peaking out between her teeth.

"Normal, Rose Tyler? Normal? _Really_? Normal is boring, and we are anything but boring." But the Doctor was shooing her as he picked up the phone. "Now off you pop. Hello, no sorry I wasn't talking to you! May I speak to Clara Oswin Oswald please, it's an urgent matter, I'm the Doctor." Rose rolled her eyes as the Doctor ranted at whatever poor soul had the unfortunate task of answering school telephones as she walked down the corridors of the new TARDIS.

Rose really didn't know why the Doctor had chosen to change the TARDIS background, or if the TARDIS had decided to do it herself, only that the change happened after the Ponds had left. He had also gotten a slightly new wardrobe. As if a change of background and wardrobe would be able to ease the pain of losing the Ponds. Rose had felt their loss also. She had missed Amy's attitude and the way she could get pretty much anyone to do as she pleased. She missed Rory's never ending patience and playing chess games with him that would go on for weeks.

But then there was Clara. Clara was right quick witted and clever, she had an over abundance of optimism and cheer. Rose and Clara had gotten along like aces since the beginning, joining up together to get the Doctor to do things they wanted to do, much to the horror of said alien. But Clara only joined them part time. She had family, friends, and a job to contend with and she loved her life on Earth just as much as she loved travelling with the Doctor and Rose.

Rose smiled as she stripped out of her jim jams, glad to be going on a trip with Clara again. It's not that she didn't enjoy her alone time with the Doctor, just the opposite really, but they had done a lot in the four months since they dropped Clara off and Rose was missing the brunette women fiercely.

Though Rose really did love travelling with the Doctor. Their progression from mates into something more had been done with surprising easiness. Of course they still fought, sometimes the Doctor forgetting she had surpassed her centuries mark and treating her like the 19 year old girl he had met three bodies and hundreds of years ago.

Rose pulled on a pair of jeans, boots, and a black shirt. After a moment's hesitation she also pulled on a red hoodie and a leather jacket. Layers were always a good idea when travelling with the Doctor. He might be aiming for Ancient Mesopotamia and future Mars, both admittedly hot places, but somehow they could end up in some sub-arctic place. If they actually ended up going where he planned she could take off clothes, but she was prepared for either or.

Rose turned towards the door, ready to go on their next adventure, but she was stopped suddenly.

"Mum?" It was barely audible, but the Jackie Tyler shaped figure standing at her door smiled anyways. "Mum?" Rose asked again, louder this time. Her heart was racing as her stomach plummeted. She was into her centuries mark now, but she suddenly felt 19 at the sight of her mother.

"Oh sweetheart, I am so sorry for this." Rose felt confused before Jackie stepped forward and grabbed her daughter's wrist and Rose burned.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

It had been a couple decades since Rose had gone dimension hopping. A couple decades and then some. Time had eroded most of the memories of it. All except the most powerful, and most of those memories came from the experiences, the place she saw, the people she met. The wrong time line in the right universe where she had been too late and the Doctor had died in the Thames, unable to regenerate. She hardly remembered the act of hopping between one universe and the other.

After she had done it two or three dozen times the act itself had become mostly painless. A little dizziness, a bit of confusion, but she could pull herself together within 10 seconds.

Rose Tyler had forgotten what it had been like in the beginning. Ripping skin and muscle and bone, intense nausea, migraines, dizziness, and a dozen other symptoms that left her gasping on the ground, not knowing her own name let alone where or when she was. She had forgotten, but in that moment she remembered as she was pulled from one place to another.

When she became solid again it felt like hitting a brick wall. All the air in her lungs left her abruptly, which was probably for the best since that prevented her from spewing forth everything she had eaten that morning. She was left shaking and shivering, trembling and wheezing as her body attempted to reassemble itself. She ached and hurt. Everything was simultaneously too loud and deathly quiet, far too bright and completely dark.

"Breathe." A sharp voice commanded her, breaking through the pain and fog as something pressed against her chest and there was a buzzing in her ear. Suddenly Rose was gasping for air, sucking in great mouthfuls, which was unfortunate because it tasted like sulfur. "There you go." The same voice, now softer, spoke to her. Rose opened her eyes, finding her face an inch away from someone with the most startling blue eyes.

"Hullo." Rose offered, trying to smile around her pain.

"Hello." The bloke offered with a smile of his own.

"I appear to be in your lap." Rose couldn't help but comment, a grin threatening to over take her features as she watched his cheeks color.

"You appear to have- well, appeared out of thin air, actually you fell out of thin air is a more accurate description. Luckily, I was there to cushion your fall." Rose did grin at that before her eyes fully adjusted and she noticed the state he was in and just who, exactly, she had landed on. She had only seen that face once, a long time ago when the universe had tried to erase her existence, but she knew it even if it was covered in grime and blood.

"Did I do that?" Rose asked, horrified at herself as her hand fluttered near his face, torn between wanting to touch him but not wanting to cause him anymore pain.

"No, I'm afraid all of this was from a crashing ship." His eyes looked behind her, losing their teasing gleam as they dimmed and became hard. Rose nearly gasped as she recognized those eyes. The face may have changed, but those intense blue eyes stayed the same into his next body and her first Doctor had often gotten that look in his eyes when he thought about the war. "Can you stand?"

"What?" Rose asked then shook her head and forced herself up onto her shaky legs. "You crashed a ship?"

"Not exactly." The Doctor pulled himself up, his hands hovering near her, but not touching.

"Blimey you're good lookin'," Rose put a hand over her mouth as the Doctor shot her a grin that made his whole face come alive. Too soon the look faded as he shifted away from her. "Sorry, brains a bit scrambled. Where am-" She had been looking around when she saw the body of a young woman laid out on a stone altar. Rose gasped and hurried over to her, checking for a pulse.

"It's too late for her," The Doctor's voice was ice, making a shiver run down Rose's back.

"She's still got a pulse though! Where's the TARDIS, you can take her back and help her." Rose turned and watched as the Doctor's whole being shut down.

"Forgoing, for now, the questions I have about you knowing about my TARDIS, she doesn't want my help. She would rather die than accept help from a Time Lord." The last two words were spat out with venom that Rose had never heard any of her Doctor's use while talking about his people. "It doesn't matter either way, I need to force a regeneration, so that I can become what this war needs."

"Yeah? And what's that? Another soldier, because last time I checked, most wars have an over abundance of 'em." Rose scowled, gently placing her hand over the young woman's.

"You don't understand, how could you?" The Doctor bent down and picked up a chalice that had taken a bit of a beating. Whatever had been inside was spread out over the floor, eating through the ground like acid.

"You were goin' to drink that?" Rose asked in astonishment before making an exasperated noise. "Never mind that, can we please get her, and you, to the TARDIS' med bay? Clearly you hit your head in the crash because you're talkin' utter nonsense right now."

"I have only gotten one minute and 12 seconds, the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Flame restored me to life, but it was only a temporary measure." The Doctor stared at Rose curiously, losing some of the hardness in his body language and face. "Why am I telling you all of this?"

"Because I'm a future companion, I don't know if I should be tellin' you that or not, but there it is." Rose admitted without a second thought because her mind had stuttered when she heard that he only had less than two minutes. "Please, Doctor, please just trust me. We need to get to the TARDIS." The Doctor stood staring at her. He made a rather intimidating, and pleasing, picture. Tall leather boots with brown breeches stuck in them. A long leather jacket over a brown vest and white undershirt. His hair was disheveled, his clothing old and worn, his body bruised and greasy, but there was something in his eyes yet.

"Alright, future companion of mine, I do not understand why but I will trust you." He called her something then, a small little name in his home language that the TARDIS never translated for her, no matter how much she pleaded. But once she had gotten the Doctor, her Doctor, to tell her what it meant. _My little hope_, it was a rough translation, the Doctor complaining about the inadequacies of the human language, but Rose had loved it. Hearing it spoken now, from the Doctor who was in the middle of the worst time of his lives, made her fall a bit more in love with the Doctor.

Rose beamed and stepped aside so that the Doctor could carefully gather up the woman in his arms.

Rose was just about to follow him out of the dark, dank cave before her wrist started burning. Rose frowned in confusion, pulling up the sleeve of her hoodie and jacket to stare in astonishment at the dimension canon wrapped around her wrist. The same one she had lost the day she and the Bad Wolf pulled her back into this universe for permanent, she had thought it had been lost to the void.

"I am sorry about this Rose," Rose looked up in shock to stare into the face of her father, Pete Tyler, dressed like he had on the day he had run out in front of that car and saved the world. Rose opened her mouth but only a scream escaped as she burned once more.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

Rose's body slammed into something soft and hot. She was able to reorientation herself better this time, quicker and she came up sputtering and swearing in all the languages she knew. Travelling with the Doctor, that meant she knew quite a few and it took her a couple minutes to get through them all. By the end she realized she was in some sort of desert with a trail of dragging footprints leading to a broken down looking shack about a kilometer away.

"Oh you think I'm goin' to go over there, do you?" Rose shouted, not quite knowing who, or what, she was shouting at but she just needed to let it be known she wasn't pleased at all with this situation. "You think I'm just goin' to keep playing your game, yeah? Well I've got news for you, I'm not!" She knew she should have formed a better argument, but her brain still felt a bit muddled and she thought she had gotten her point across well enough.

"If you quit now it will be no fun at all." Rose stared at herself, well another figure who looked like her except this one had wild hair with torn clothes. Rose gave it a full minute before she sat down right in the sand. "Sorry, this form not what you want either? You seemed upset by your mum and your dad, so I thought I'd go for this one."

"Sittin' out in the middle of a desert god knows where, with a dimensional canon embedded in my wrist, talkin' to myself. Yeah, I'm just goin' to skip this one, ta." Rose wished that the Doctor were here, he would tease her for slinking back into her London accent before asking her where her sense of adventure was at.

"Is this better then?" Rose looked up and looked the future version of her Doctor. The older one with gray hair and 'attack eye brows'. The slim one with the Scottish accent.

"Are you a metamorph then? Telepathic too, but you shouldn't be able to get into my head that easily." The Doctor had showed her how to put up mental shields after Cassandra had taken over her body. But Rose had thought about the Doctor and then she-he, it, or whatever had gone and changed into the Doctor. A future body that she had only met once.

"Actually I'm the consciousness of the most powerful weapon in the multiverse." The Doctor said as he sat down next to her, looking completely out of place in his all black outfit in the middle of the orange desert.

"So you're like an interface?" The consciousness made a face. "Okay, not an interface then. You're the one pullin' me all over the universe?"

"You can call me the Moment if you don't want to refer to me as the Doctor," The Moment offered before going on without giving Rose time to comment. "And yes, that's me, hello, and sorry about that. Except I'm not. You're important, you see the Doctor, yes your Doctor, is in there right now, getting ready to pull the trigger- or press the button, whichever you prefer, to destroy billions of lives." Rose's heart pounded in her chest as she stared over at the shack.

"This is it then? The day the Doctor ends the war." Rose shoved herself to her feet. "Why am I here?" But the Moment had disappeared, leaving behind not even a trace. Rose slowly began her walk towards the shack, her mind churning with all the unanswered questions.

Why was she here? How had she gotten here? The Moment, the consciousness of the most powerful weapon in the multiverse had pulled her here, but to what purpose? Was she meant to stop the Doctor, or help him? To maybe find another way? Perhaps she was just a hand to hold, but nothing was ever that simple. How had she broken into an event that was supposed to be time locked?

"Hello?" Rose asked as she entered the shack. Despite her multiple layers she had been alright in what should have been the blistering heat. It was as if the suns warmth just couldn't reach this place.

"You." The Doctor, the one she had just left, stood up from the crates he had been sitting on. "She told me you were coming." He looked older somehow. More worn and tired, his clothes in need of repair.

"She- the Moment?" Rose asked hesitantly, looking down at the intricately carved box in the middle of the shack. "Met her, or him, or it. Seems to think it's important I'm here." The Doctor's brows creased before he looked away.

"So you can witness the most horrible act anyone in the universe has ever committed?" The Doctor questioned bitterly. "Or maybe it is so I can bear witness to the destruction I'm about to cause." Rose stepped towards him, but he stepped back.

"I'm opening windows on your future." They both turned towards a petite blonde woman. The Doctor seemed to know who she was, but Rose was left in the dark. All three turned towards a bright light, a worm hole in the ceiling that swirled and twittered at them. "The tangle in time through the days to come to the man today will make of you."

Rose jumped back as a fez came through the portal, landing harmlessly on the ground.

"Okay. I wasn't expecting that." The girl said, sounding confused and just a bit appalled as she stepped back from the fez. Rose let out a sigh, knowing the only person in the universe who would toss a fez, of all things, through an unknown portal. "Oh she knows." The girl said, grinning slightly, her whole face lighting up.

"Lucie-" The Doctor paused then hung his head.

"M'names Rose Tyler." Rose stepped forward and put out her hand. "What? Just because the world might be endin', no need to be rude."

"I'm the Doctor, but you already know that." He placed his hand within hers, but he didn't let go, instead he pulled it up towards his face and inspected it. "You seem human, and you're speaking English, but your-" The Doctor dropped her hand and turned away from her. "I guess it doesn't really matter right now." He was staring down at the box. Rose looked over at the Moment, Lucie is what the Doctor had called her. Lucie nodded towards the Doctor and Rose picked up the fez off the ground, leaning over to place it on top of the Doctor's head.

"My pants are early 21st century, just can't find any material like it anywhere else. But my shirt is from a festival on a planet 14 thousand light years away. My shoes are from Earth, around 1980. My hoodie is made from a material not available on Earth, or any surrounding galaxies. Should I continue on?" Rose asked cheekily. "Seems like she's not goin' to give you permission to use her unless you do as she says." Rose resisted the urge to compare the Moment to the TARDIS, but judging from the beaming look that Lucie shot her, she had heard Rose's thoughts just fine.

"She wants me to go through there?" The Doctor motioned towards the portal.

"I think she wants us to go through there." Rose answered, tongue in teeth as she held out her hand and wiggled her fingers a bit when he hesitated.

"We have no idea where that goes." The Doctor commented, but he still slowly took her hand, lacing his fingers with hers and holding on tightly. Rose momentarily wondered when the last time he had held someone's hand, or had any physical interaction that wasn't violence based.

"That's half the fun, plus a fez just came from there so I doubt it's all that unwelcoming." Though she was half positive her Doctor, the one that dressed as a mad professor, was waiting on the other side.

Something of a smile curled the corner of the Doctor's mouth. They both turned towards the portal and leapt through.

And landed on hard ground. Rose stumbled but the Doctor's quick movements kept her from falling.

"Anyone lose a fez?" The Doctor asked, pulling the fez off of his head and standing up straight. Rose straightened with him and came face-to –face with the Doctor. Or Doctor's, since there seemed to be two of them.

"You." Ten said, shock rasping his voice as he glanced between his eighth self and Rose, and then their intertwined hands. "How can you be here?"

"Rose! Is this where you wandered off to?" Eleven wondered, his voice betraying the happiness at seeing her again. Rose had no idea what had gone through his head when she simply vanished, but she knew it couldn't be good.

"Sorry, thought I'd pop off for a while to mess around in your own personal time line." Rose grumbled out, but she still relented when he pulled her in for a hug. Her whole body sagged against his, humming in happiness at being reunited, though it had been less than half an hour since she had left him in the console room.

"Who are these men?" Eight asked, his brow furrowed again. "I'm looking for the Doctor."

"Well, you've certainly come to the right place." Ten said, glancing over at Eleven and Rose, but his eyes skimmed right past her.

"Good. Right. Who are you boys?" Rose pressed her lips together as the two younger looking Doctor's shared a look. "Of course. Are you his companions?"

"His companions?" Eleven asked, appalled as he looked down at Rose in exasperation, as if this was somehow partially her fault.

"They get younger all the time." Eight said with a sigh, glancing particularly at Rose. "Well, if you could point me in the general direction of the Doctor." Rose giggled as the two other Doctor's pulled out their sonic's and activated them. Dawning realization lit up the eighth Doctor's face. "Really?"

"Yeah." Eleven confirmed.

"You're me? Both of you?" Eight asked, eye brows raised and it robbed his face of the blank, emotionless mask he had been wearing.

"Yup." Ten popped his 'p', making Rose's whole body tense. Eleven looked down at her, brows furrowed, question on the tip of his tongue, but Eight interrupted him.

"Even that one?"

"Yes!"

"You're my future selves?"

"Yes." Both answered, sounding annoyed now. Patience hadn't been a virtue in any of the Doctor's Rose had known.

"Am I having a mid-life crisis?" Eight scowled, stepping forward, but the other two Doctor's stepped back and held out their sonics towards him. Rose was pushed behind their backs.

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They are scientific instruments, not water-pistols! You look like you've seen a ghost." Both Doctor's put down their arms, looking a bit ashamed as Rose laughed behind them. Ten turned and stared down at her. Rose gave him a hesitant smile, to which he scowled at, making Rose shift closer to Eleven at the cold look she had never seen the Doctor give her.

"Loving the posh thing, he's very convincing." Ten said, turning away from Rose, but her heart hammered away in her chest, breaking over a man she had thought she'd never see again.

"Brave words, Dick Van Dyke." Eleven answered, his voice a little cold as he pulled Rose closer to him and away from Ten. Rose allowed the side hug for a moment before pulling away and standing closer to Eight. Rose was just about to explain, to the best of her ability, what exactly was going on, but then men with lances started swarming in on them.

"Oh are we in medieval times? Love me a good medieval time, granted not if it's in England, Queens tend not to be too big of a fan of yours." Rose said with a grin, putting her hands up in surrender as Eight gave her a questioning look, but she could see the corners of his lip twitching upwards.

"Which of you is the Doctor?" A man asked.

"Of course we're in medieval England," Rose muttered. "Maybe this is one of the Queens who hasn't met the Doctor yet."

"The Queen of England is bewitched. I would have the Doctor's head." The man scowled as Rose sighed, being once again pushed behind the Doctor's as the men with lances surrounded them.

"Well," Eight shot a small grin at Rose as his future regenerations pointed their sonics at the men with lances. "This has all the makings of your lucky day." Rose grinned back at him, knocking her shoulder lightly against him in amusement.

"There's a precedent for that." A female voice with authority said, and everyone looked up towards the portal because that was where the voice had come from.

"They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?" Eight scolded the other two Doctor's, making them glance at each other as they put their sonics down. Rose giggled and Eleven knocked her gently away, but all humor was lost when she saw Ten's face, only coldness rested there.

"That thing, what witchraft is it?" The man in charge of the other men with lances asked.

"Ah!" Eleven tossed his sonic, catching it deftly and looking very amused. "Yes, now that you mention it, that is witchcraft. Yes, yes, yes, witchy witchcraft. Hello? Hello in there, excuse me, hello. Am I talking to the wicked witch of the well?"

"Doctor," Rose said in exasperation.

"Clara?" The Doctor asked.

"Hello?" Clara answered back, making Rose beam. She had wondered if Clara had been dragged along on this odd adventure of theirs.

"Clara, hi. Hello. Hello. Would you mind telling these prattling mortals to get themselves begone?" Eleven asked, looking quite proud of himself.

"What he said." Clara's voice said from the portal, not sounding the least bit convincing.

"A tiny bit more colour?" Eleven whispered towards the portal.

"Right. Prattling mortals! Off you pop. Or I'll turn you all into frogs." Clara sounded, if possible, even less convincing that go around, but the men surrounding Rose and the Doctors still looked fearful.

"Frogs. Nice. You heard her."

"Doctor, what's going on?" Clara asked.

"It's, er, a timey-wimey things." Eleven answered back, tossing his hands up as he looked around at everyone.

"Timey what? Timey-wimey?" Eight asked in disgust.

"I've no idea where he picks that stuff up." Ten mumbled, hands buried deep in his pockets as he shrugged. Rose grinned, her tongue peeking out, but the look faded quickly as she watched all the color drain from her pinstriped Doctor's face. Eleven, more in tuned with things going around him then he lets on most of the time, shifted in between Rose and Ten, his fingers deftly twining with Rose's.

"My Queen!" The men shouted all at once, falling to their knees, which seemed like a horrible idea to Rose, if the four of them had really been a threat they had all just let down their guards for proprieties sake, which was just so very British.

"You don't seem to be kneeling, how tremendously brave of you." The Queen addressed them, but it was Ten to step forward, frowning at her.

"Which one are you? What happened to the other one?" Ten asked, which made Rose and the other two Doctor's look from the Queen and Ten in question.

"Indisposed," The Queen spoke, smirking merrily in a way that made Rose's skin crawl a bit. "Long live the Queen."

"Long live the Queen!" The man, and Rose, shouted in union.

"What?" Rose asked as innocently as possible when three sets of eyes looked at her.

"Arrest these men. Take them to the Tower." The Queen commanded, sticking her nose in the air a bit.

"That is not the Queen of England! That's an alien duplicate!" Ten said, pointing dramatically towards the ginger woman.

"And you can take it from him, 'cause he's really checked." Eleven pipped in, nudging Rose with a grin.

"Oh, shut up."

"Venom sacs in the tongue." Eleven explained to Rose, who was grinning at the exchange. All in all she thought it was going pretty well, they hadn't devolved into calling each other names so she considered this a win so far.

"Seriously, stop it."

"No, hang on. The Tower. Did you say the Tower?" Eleven jumped forward, ignoring the man who went for his sword. "Ah, yes. Brilliant. Love the Tower. Breakfast at 8, please. Will there be wi-fi?" Eleven asked, looking very pleased with himself as he checked his watch that seemed to do everything but tell the time.

"Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?" Eight asked, coming to stand next to Rose.

"Yes," Eleven answered, holding his hands up before clapping them together and shaking his head. "No. Shut it, Rose Tyler. I demand to be incarcerated in the Tower immediately with my co-conspirators, Sandshoes and Breeches."

"Breeches? That really the best you can do?" Eight challenged, and Eleven looked like he was about to take that challenge up.

"They're not sandshoes." Ten said, sounding exasperated.

"Yes they are," Eight said, the corners of his lip twitching. Rose had a feeling that before the outbreak of war that particular body had a fondness for smiling, and teasing, but he had been a soldier too long and was rusty. Well, no one could resist smiling when she and the Doctor were around, let alone three Doctors, Rose, and Clara.

"Silence. The Tower is not to be taken lightly. Very few emerge again. Take these men there immediately." The Queen ordered, her voice hitting a pitch that Rose was not very fond of. Then again maybe she was being a bit harsh towards the not-so-Virgin-Queen. And then on the other side, what was with the Doctor and high class woman?

"Sorry, don't mean to be a bother, but I'm not a man." Rose piped up, not knowing why she felt the need to state that, but the Queen hadn't even bothered to acknowledge her existence and that stung a bit. At least Cleopatra was pleasant to her, and Reinette had even spoken with a bit of respect.

"Really? You could have fooled me, you certainly dress like a man, and you have the countenance of a man." The Queen sniffed and Rose took a step forward but Eleven caught her.

"You going to slap the Queen? Again?" Eleven asked, eye brows raised but no real judgment on his young face.

"Oh shut up, that was a completely different Queen." Rose muttered as they were all manhandled towards the Tower.

**DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW**

"Three of us in one cell?" Ten questioned, looking around the dank, and frankly very smelly, cell. Rose picked the cleanest looking spot and sat down, knowing they'd be here for a bit of time. She watched Eleven start carving something into a stone pillar. "That's going to cause some nasty anomalies if we don't get out soon." Eight was using his sonic to scan the locked door. "What are you doing?" Ten asked Eleven.

"Getting us out." Eleven stated plainly, as if that was completely obvious.

"The sonic won't work on that. It's too primitive." Ten said towards Eight.

"Shall we ask for a better quality of door, so we can escape?" Eleven asked before returning to his pillar.

"Okay, so the Queen of England is now a Zygon. Never mind that. Why are we all together? No wait, better yet, who the hell is that?" Ten asked, turning towards Rose, who froze in place, her happy smile slipping off her face as the pinstriped Doctor looked at her with no emotion apparent on his handsome face, that was definitely a couple years older-looking than the last she saw. Rose knew they were in trouble, because an angry Doctor could be dealt with, but one who was hiding all and any emotions? Now that was bad.

"Don't be daft, that's Rose, you know it, I know it, hell even he knows it and he's one regeneration away from their first encounter." Eleven explained, and Rose noted that he was very close to losing it himself.

"No, no, because that's impossible, because R-" Ten stumbled on her name, before piling on. "Because she's stuck in another universe, another dimension, far away from this one. And there's no getting from here to there, because I- well because I know. So I'll ask again, who the hell are you?"

"Is this why you've been so cold to me? Because you think I'm- what? A zygon? Some sort of shapeshifter or living plastic?" Rose questioned, understanding dawning on her as she looked at the Doctor who been born out of saving her. "I came back."

"It's not possible!" Ten ground out.

"How the hell would you know?" Rose shot back without really thinking it through, because she was a little fed up with how he was treating her. He had left her behind, _again_, and he had the audacity to act like this to her?

"Because he tried to get back to you," Eleven answered, drawing all their attention to him, but he was only staring at Rose. "Nearly tore apart several universes doing so, until finally the TARDIS locked me- locked him out, left us on Lagoon for a while." Eleven rounded on Ten, poking him in the chest with the metal nail he had been using to carve into the pillar. "She's really Rose Tyler, and she found a way back to us without having the whole of reality collapse on itself so you, _behave_."

"Not that I don't enjoy a good soap opera," Eight drawled, looking not at all like he enjoyed what was going on. "But does someone care to explain?" Rose took a deep breath, because Ten was still digesting what he had been told and Eleven was still shooting daggers at Ten.

"I started travellin' with you when I was 19, and you were all leather and northern." Rose felt a slight pang of grief that her first Doctor wasn't here, but she pushed on. "That's your next body, well it is if we don't muck everything up. Something happened, something I can't tell you about, but you ended up regenerating to save my life. He became him-" Rose motioned to Ten, who was staring hard at the ground now. "And we travelled for a while before I got stuck somewhere, and we were separated for a while."

"But she found her way back, because she's utterly brilliant, but also because the void had disappeared. And then-" Eleven gave Rose a guilty look.

"You made a decision for me, left me behind. Found you again a couple years later." Rose shrugged, feeling like that retelling was completely inadequate.

"Yes, well, ignoring the all the gaping holes in your story and the fact you stayed through multiple regenerations, which does explain why you handled Karn and being pulled to Gallifrey by a weapons consciousness so well. Ignoring all that-" Eight took a deep breath, as if he was readying himself to reveal something quite troublesome, or fantastic, but Ten interrupted.

"Rose Tyler!" Ten had Rose up in his arms in an instant, and Rose felt all her anger and despair drain away. "You are brilliant."

"Oh, so I'm Rose now, am I?" Rose couldn't help but tease.

"Well," He dragged the word out, making her grin and him beam back at her, his whole face appearing years younger with the simple action. "Only the real Rose Tyler could get herself into a situation like this."

"I'm sorry, are you blamin' me for all of this? Because I'm pretty sure this is you all the way, Doctor, or should I say King Doctor? Soon to be the husband of the Queen of England, formerly known as the Virgin Queen in history books that will not have to be rewritten?" Rose questioned, eye brows raised, but the Doctor only beamed all the more at her for her snark.

"You, Rose Tyler-" It's like now that he could actually get her name out, he couldn't stop saying it. "Have gotten even more sarcastic in your old age."

"Old age?" Rose squeaked out, shoving Ten, but relenting when Eleven gave a cough. So her actual age was not to be discussed in present company, understood.

"It's nothing to be ashamed about, just a bit of cream will fix you right up." Ten allowed her to hit him the first time but he deftly moved out of the way of the follow up kick. "Anyways, more important matters to discuss! Why are we all here? Me and Chinny, we were surprised, but you came looking for us. You knew it was going to happen. Did you tell him?" Ten asked, rounding on Rose.

"Tell him what exactly? I'm surprised I can remember anything in my weak and feeble state." Rose grumbled, still feeling a bit sore over the whole 'old' comment. She glanced up to see Lucie, or the Moment, press a finger to her lips. Eight and Rose exchanged a look that did not go unnoticed by the other two Doctor's.

"Oi! Chinny?" Eleven asked, clearly allowing for a distraction.

"Yeah, you do have a chin. And don't try to distract me, how did you break through a Time Lock?" Ten asked, turning towards Rose again, stepping closer though she did note he still hadn't resumed the non-distance he usually had with her. Or had with her.

"Space magic," Rose found herself answering. Ten shifted closer, just a fraction, his hands buried deep in his suit pockets as he tilted his head down towards her. Rose knew that look, she had missed that look, and she knew if someone didn't intervene soon he would get exactly what he wanted.

"Oi, no full inquisition on the companion, thanks." Eleven ordered, inserting himself between Rose and Ten. He shoved Ten with his shoulder, but accidently elbowed Rose at the same time.

"Doctor!" Rose wheezed out, but she was laughing as he spun around to her, successfully pushing Ten back further as he leant over her, checking for injuries and managing to tickle her at the same time.

"This is what I have to look forward too?" Eight asked, his blue eyes watching the scene with an unreadable look. Eleven and Rose froze, his fingers caught in her hands as they both looked guiltily up.

"Not a bad life." Eleven commented, straightening up and pulling his fingers free of Rose's grip, only to quickly entwine his fingers with hers. Rose tried to keep a goofy grin off her face, and failed for the most part.

"Better with two." Rose swung their clasped hands a bit, peeking around Eleven's chest to look at Ten, who was eyeing them with a look Rose knew all too well. He was scrutinizing everything little moment, every little movement.

"How can you even possibly- after what I'm about to do?" Rose thought Eight was talking to his future selves. How could he possibly be happy after committing genocide on hundreds of different species of aliens, not to mention his own people? But when Rose looked over at Eight she saw his eyes were not on either of his future selves, but on her and she felt her heart pick up a beat at the true meaning of his words.

How could she ever love a murderer?

**A/N:** Hello hello! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I would just like to point out that I do love me some John Hurt, but I would have loved so much more to see Paul McGann in the 50th Anniversary episode. He has so much potential, and that little snippet video of him just wasn't enough!


	16. Chapter 16

Clara stumbled through the heavy wooden door, glancing around with clear anxiety before her eyes met Elevens, and Rose watched as the brunette girl relaxed. Rose had never been more thankful for the other woman's impeccable timing than she was at that moment. It wasn't that she didn't want to answer the youngest Doctors question, it was that she had just never considered it.

The Doctor and Rose had talked about the Time War, not often and not in any great detail, but there had been quiet moments. Trapped in other prisons, facing execution or torture. Floating through the vortex, working on a long list of repairs the Doctor had put off for a century or two. Dark nights in her bed or his. Soft words exchanged in the galley.

Rose knew it had become critical near the end. So much death and destruction already rained down, and the Time Lords were losing. The daleks could just simply make more daleks to replace the ones who were destroyed, but even though Time Lords were loomed, not born in the human-traditional sense, it still took time for them to grow, and time was something they had run out of. They were desperate, and in their desperation they had made a final decision that would have affected the entirety of the universe, perhaps multiple universes.

The Doctor had an impossible choice. Destroy everything in the Time Lock, or let the Time Lords destroy the entire universe because they were too afraid of dying.

Die young as a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Except the Doctor had chosen the root that would make him both. To the rest of the cosmos he was a hero, even though they'd never know the sacrifice he had made to save them. Never know the depth of his despair over his decision. But he was a villain to all he had destroyed, all who know what he had done. A villain to himself.

Rose did not see him as a hero, and she was no longer naive enough to see him as a hero. He was just the Doctor, just her Doctor.

What was it he had said, so many years ago, trapped with her at 10 Downing Street? His life wasn't fun or smart, it was just him standing up and making a decision because no one else would. That was her Doctor, every single one she knew and didn't.

But how could she ever explain that to him? Especially this younger, war torn version who didn't know her yet. Best to allow Clara to distract them all.

"How did you do that?" Eleven asked, also deciding the distraction was just what they needed.

"It wasn't locked." Clara answered simply, and Rose felt herself grin. Someone should have checked, probably her.

"Right." Eleven nodded before Clara stepped forward, glancing between all the Doctors.

"So they're both you, then, yeah?" Clara questioned softly, fingers twisting around themselves.

"Yes. You've met them before. Don't you remember?" Eleven asked as Ten adjusted his suit jacket.

"A bit. Nice suit." Clara looked over at Rose, shooting a look of approval that nearly had Rose lose complete composure. So yes, Rose had gone on a bit about her previous Doctors when prodded for information. The Doctor was always so stodgy about the whole regeneration thing, but Rose didn't care for secrecy or unanswered questions.

"Thanks." Ten managed to sound both confused and flattered.

"Hang on. Three of you in one cell, and none of you thought to try the door? Actually, no, that makes perfect sense, but Rose, really?" Clara sounded disappointed.

"Hey, bit preoccupied, little bit busy here." Rose defended herself, though she wasn't all that offended. She should have checked the door.

"I bet." Clara purposely let her eyes land on each of the Doctors before redirecting her look back to Rose, raising her eye brows. Rose let out a bubble of laughter before she could stop herself.

"It should have been locked." Eight spoke up for the first time, looking, despite himself, amused at the whole situation.

"Yes, exactly. Why wasn't it locked?" Eleven questioned, knocking his shoulder against Rose's when she continued to giggle.

"Because I was fascinated to see what you would do upon escaping." Rose winced at that voice. Oh did the Queen have just the worst voice, luckily she was the Queen or she'd be in a fair amount of trouble. Though Rose noticed she was being a bit unfair, but one glance at Ten and she knew why. As if he sensed her focus on him, his brown eyes turned to her and warmed instantly. His lips twitching upwards, as if he was one second away from releasing one of his full, manic smiles that always forced a smile to her own face, no matter the situation.

It was absurd, Rose decided. She was over 100 years old now, not in her 20's, and it had been so long since she'd even seen that Doctor with his tall frame covered in a perfectly fitted suit. She felt like she should have some control over her heart, or at least her reactions, but suddenly she was 20 years old ago, and she wanted nothing more than to hold out her hand and know that he would take it.

It felt like cheating.

Rose knew it wasn't, knew the Doctor wouldn't view it that way. She was trying to fit her human standards and view upon a completely alien situation, and it was completely twisting her up inside.

For gods sake she wasn't mostly human now anyways!

"Oh no, did I miss what she was saying?" Rose asked as Eleven nudged her into following along in line behind the Queen.

"Rose, she's the Queen of England." Eleven whispered, though there was an amusement sparkling in his green eyes that didn't quite match the admonishment in his voice.

"And apparently your wife." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"His wife." Eleven motioned towards his younger self, who shot him a glare. "And do I really need to mention you're marriage to James Dean?"

"Oh, James, wonder how he's doing." Rose grinned up at the Doctor, not able to help herself as Ten made an undignified sound in front of them.

"You married James Dean?" Ten questioned, eyebrows raised in an affront.

"It was a rather lovely ceremony, until the Doctor ruined it." Rose nodded in agreement with Clara's opinion. "He was even more handsome in person." Both women sighed in remembrance.

"Oi!" Two appalled voices rang out.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" The Queen asked, not sounding sorry at all, but rather put off. Probably not a good idea to annoy someone who could have them all executed, so they all put their focus on the Queen.

That was when they learned the truth of the Zygons plan for Earth, and the people of it, who were quite inconsequential to them. Rose grudgingly admitted a small amount of respect for the Queen, who had accepted all this and had made a move to protect her people and country.

"It's a lovely ceremony, very touching, very moving." Clara whispered to Rose, who was fighting a grin.

"Shut up Clara," Rose whispered back, but there was no venom in her words as they watched the Queen yank Ten down for a long kiss.

"Not as lovely as your and James wedding, granted, but still quite nice." Both women leaned against each other, stifling their laughter then giving whoops of congratulations when the kiss was done.

"I will be right back." Ten rushed away, his long legs taking him to his TARDIS in a few quick strides.

"He's a quick one," Clara commented.

"Yeah, well only when someone's chasing him. Murderous hordes, soldiers, screaming witches, women he's just married." Rose shrugged and grinned as Eleven gave her an offended look.

"Right then, back to the future." Eleven gently pushed and prodded Clara and Rose to the TARDIS, letting Eight go first.

"You've let this place go a bit." Eight commented, his posh accent twirling around the disapproval.

"Ah, it's his grunge phase. He grows out of it." Eleven excused his younger self.

Rose stopped near the door, letting Clara rush past her.

"Don't you listen to them." Ten spoke lovingly to the TARDIS console as she let out a sharp beep before sparking. The lights flickered, the console turning red. "The desktop is glitching!" Ten said in an accusing voice to his other selves.

"She's trying to compensate, with three of us from different time zones." Eight spoke up, walking around the suddenly brighter TARDIS before stopping near Rose, giving her a concerned look. A questioning look.

"Hey look, the round things." Eleven said, motioning to the walls which were, to his credit, round _things_.

"I love the round things." Ten answered back, glancing around.

"What are the round things?" Eleven questioned and Rose nearly laughed as Ten shook his head.

"No idea."

"Oh, dear, the friction contrafibulator!" Eleven yelled, rushing to the console as it emmitted another high pitched beep. He pulled a lever, the console sparked again before the whole setting changed once more. "Ha! There, stabilised."

"Oh, you've redecorated. I don't like it." So quickly Ten dashed Elevens hope, but Clara was smiling in amusement off to the side.

"Oh yeah? Oh, you never do. Listen. We're going to the National Gallery. The Zygons are underneath it." Eleven ran around the console, his usual frantic energy back.

"No, UNIT HQ. They followed us there, in the Black Archive!" Clara corrected. All the Doctor's turned their full attention to the brunette girl. "Okay, so you've heard of that, then." Of course they had, as they explained, they had thought they destroyed it once. Bunch of highly dangerous technology in the hands of the military? No, didn't sound very good to any of them.

"Are you alright?" Eight questioned softly as Ten and Eleven discussed their options. His fingers gently touched her elbow, as if once tactical touch had been something that came easy to him, but now he was unsure, questioning his every move. But even the light touch, the soft press of his fingertips were a comfort. The unfamiliar posh accent, soft near her ear was another sort of comfort. Everything was so different about him, but the concern shining in his eyes wasn't.

"Just a little off with the being pulled from one place to another, I'll be fine in a bit." Rose answered honestly, though the dimensional canon device was still fused to her wrist, and it seemed fully active, as if just waiting for the next command. She was worried because she knew the Moment hadn't set this all up just so they could have a nice reunion, but it was all something she could deal with. "Honestly, Doctor." Rose touched his extended hand, just a light caress of her fingers against his because he looked like he needed it, but he also looked like anything more than that would send him away from her.

Eight ran his thumb lightly over her knuckles, pulling her hand towards his chest gently and it took her a second to realize he was looking at the dimensional cannon fused to her wrist. It had not been a pretty thing a hundred years past, and it looked no better now. Chunky and half dirty, with fraying and tears in the leather it resided on. It wasn't something she'd ever willingly choose to have fused to her skin.

"What is that?" Ten questioned, hands buried deep in his pockets as he stepped closer to his younger self and Rose.

"It's nothing." Rose pulled her hand out of Eights light grasp, then shoved her sleeve over her wrist. "I mean, it's something, clearly it's something, but nothing that can't wait until all of this-" She motioned to everyone in the room and everything involving them at this moment. "is resolved." Ten gave her a sceptical look, as if moments away from pulling out his sonic and demanding her arm, and she would gladly hand it over if it meant she could stand near him once again. Feel his skin against hers just once more, even if it was his hand in hers. "Really Doctor, it'll hold."

"Science leads Kate, is that what your father meant?" Eleven spoke into a microphone, leaning down with his arms braced against the console. Clara stood behind him, grinning proudly.

"Doctor?" Rose could only assume it was Kate who answered.

"Space-time telegraph, Kate. A gift from me to your father. Hotline straight to the TARDIS. I know about the Black Archive, and I know about the security protocol. Kate, please, please tell me you are not about to do something unbelievably stupid." Eleven pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. Switch it off." Kate answered back.

"Not as sorry as you will be." Eleven said softly, not a threat, but a promise of a bleak future.

"This is not a decision you will ever be able to live with!" Ten had moved to stand next to the console, on the opposite side that his future self stood. The TARDIS shook violently.

"Kate!" Eleven pressed hard against a lever. "We're trying to bring the TARDIS in! Why can't we land?"

"I said switch it off." Kate commanded harshly from the other end of the line.

"No, Kate, please, just listen to me!" But there was static feedback, the telegraph cutting out, and then silence as everyone stared at the console, as if the old girl could give them the answers they needed.

"I'm guessing the security protocol involves sometime of bomb?" Rose questioned.

"A nuclear one underneath the Black Archive, I've- we've disbanded it four times now." Ten answered, shifting so he was standing next to her, both of them standing back from the console.

"Seven times, and an eighth after this." Eleven slammed a lever up before spinning away, hands pressed together in front of him in a way that betrayed his anger with the entirety of this situation. Rose wanted to go to him, but there were too many people watching. Too many of his past selves anyways.

"Tower of London. Totally TARDIS-proof." Ten spoke factually, his anger simmering much lower than Elevens. Rose didn't understand why, if anything her former Doctor was much quicker to anger about things like this. Far more of a pacifist than her current one. Never liked a bomb he couldn't disarm. Rose studied him from the corner of her eye, but she must have been a bit too obvious about it because he caught her stare and gave her a wink.

Her heart gave a lurch in her chest, _Bad Wolf_ stirred inside her mind for the first time in a decade. Luce- The Moment- stood behind Ten, just off to the side.

"How can they do that?" Clara asked, pulling Rose away from her sudden dread. Bad Wolf only woke herself up when things were about to become life-threatening.

"Alien technology, plus human stupidity. Trust me, it's unbeatable." Despite her dread, Rose managed to give Eleven a hard look. Always blaming the human race when things got difficult. "Don't go giving me that look, Rose Tyler, that bomb will kill everyone in London, and everything for several hundred kilometers will die a slow death with it. The vast majority of Great Britain will become unlivable, the ocean surrounding it will become polluted. Entire echo-systems destroyed, families gone. All for what?"

Rose didn't bother answering that, because she agreed with Kate, even though she had never met the woman. Of course Rose would have preferred the non-lethal way, the way of least violence, or no violence at all, but sometimes that just wasn't an option.

She remembered standing on the deck of a dalek ship, approving that Martha Jones would destroy the earth to protect the rest of the universe. Proud when Jack Harkness would blow up the ship to save billions, trillions- impossible to count number of lives.

The Zygons were threatening the entirety of human existence on Earth. Humans would fight back, of course they would, never did they go down without a fight, but they were outmatched. They would go down, and so many more would end up dying in the crossfire. The rest would be enslaved, or killed outright.

Did Rose want to lose millions of lives? No, but it was better than the other outcome.

"You would pull that trigger?" Eight asked softly, as if he didn't really believe it himself. As if he had already come to the conclusion of what type of person she was, and this didn't fit into that box. Rose couldn't blame him for that, she couldn't even look at Ten, and she would be even more ashamed if her first Doctor was here.

"2014." Rose glanced over at Clara, seeing the pale young woman looking at her in disbelief made her turn her full attention to Eight. "My mate Mickey's in London, been married for a couple years now. He had his first baby girl a year ago, and a second one on the way. There's brilliant Martha Jones, working for UNIT, a medical field Doctor. Donna Noble is just now meeting a man with a stutter called Lee-" A quick glance at Eleven. They had done that, with Lee's permission. The man had known fully what he was going to do, but he wanted to be with the woman he had married in a dream. "Less than a year they'll be married and travelling around the globe. I could name countless more people, everyone who I love who would die, and I can say with absolute certainty that they would approve."

"Because you've asked them?" There was anger now in Eight's handsome features. The same anger that boiled just beneath the surface in every Doctor she met. An anger that just got darker after the Time War.

"Because they've been willing to do it before," Eleven answered. "Their lives or the lives of others, and each time they choose others." He was leaning against the TARDIS console now, head bowed, anger draining out of him so quickly that it left him looking so very tired.

"We can't use the TARDIS, but Clara's got a Time Vortex Manipulator, she used it to get out so it should be possible to use it to get back in, yeah?" Rose asked, rubbing her forehead and feeling suddenly very tired. Had it only been a couple hours since she had been sitting in this same console room, in her jimjams and flirting with the Doctor? It felt like ages ago.

Bad Wolf curled out further from the depths of her mind, stretching in a way that was now familiar. In a way that Rose now could identify that she was trying to comfort Rose, and telling Rose to buck up because it was about to get a lot worse.

Rose looked up and met the eyes of the Moment. The Moment was an all powerful weapon, but then again, so was the Bad Wolf. So was Rose Tyler, and she was done being manipulated.

"Brilliant Rose Tyler to the rescue!" Eleven touched the tip of her nose with his finger, his eyes serious even if his voice was over exuberant. He hadn't missed that something was going on, something else that was bothering her, but they didn't have time to settle it at this moment, but his face said he'd put everything aside if she needed him now. London, the Zygons, his past selves, all if it forgotten if she needed his assistance.

Rose smiled at him, and Eleven nodded, just a small movement of his head but it was an agreement. She would be fine for now.

Ten was already taking the Time Vortex Manipulator from Clara, both of them grinning as he tossed it over to Eleven, who started to patch it into the console.

"I'm sorry, what's going on?" Clara asked, coming to stand next to Rose, because the other woman was more likely to give her an answer that she could actually understand, instead of the techno-babble that any of the Doctors were likely to give her, mostly to sound smart, but also partially because they were too busy to make anything simple.

"They are going to match the frequencies used by the Manipulator to the TARDIS," Eight explained instead, standing on the other side of Clara. He was standing a bit straighter, his eyes keen and brighter than they had when she found in him that shack. How long had the Time War been going on for him? How long since he had a conversation that didn't include battle strategies and weapons? Now he was off into another battle. "Essentially we should be able to fool the shields keeping us out of the Black Archive, make them believe we are smaller than we are. It is like a net, you see, small nets allow you to catch small objects because the holes that make it up are too small for anything to slip through, but something larger will just break the net. UNIT instead made a large net, to stop things like the TARDIS from coming through, but it means the holes let smaller things slip through."

"Smaller things like the watch-thing?" Clara questioned, looking fascinated as she motioned to the Time Vortex Manipulator, and the two energetic Doctor's running around the console.

"Exactly!" Eight smiled proudly down at her and Clara beamed back. Clara then strolled over to the other Doctor's, trying to get a closer look. "She's extremely clever, how long has she been travelling with the eldest version of me?" Eight asked quietly, and Rose nearly grinned because she knew this game all too well. It had been a long time since she played it, not since her Northern Doctor. Surprisingly he had been the least blunt of all the regenerations she knew, asking seemingly harmless questions until the person he was questioning made their own noose.

"Not very long, and it's on and off travelling." Rose answered honestly, leaning closer to Eight as he leant in too. "She has a job, and a family. So we drop her off and pick her up, take her on an adventure or two, usually end up nearly dying, then drop her off again."

"And how long have you been travelling?" Eight asked casually, like it was just an offhand question, nothing important.

"Since I was 19." Rose said truthfully, no longer able to contain her smile. The corner of his mouth twitch, as if he was fighting back the instinctual urge to smile also. She realized his blue eyes were not the same shade as her northern Doctor's, but she still quite liked looking into them. There was a deep seeded sadness in them, a heavyweight he couldn't seem to shake, but beneath that there was humor and mischievousness, so ingrained into his being that not even the tragedy that was the Time War could wipe it out of him completely. Though the war was trying its damned best to.

Without much thought behind it, Rose reached out and entwined her fingers with the youngest Doctor's. He seemed a bit shocked at first, but then his fingers clenched hers nearly painfully before loosening.

"And done!" Eleven flipped a lever and the TARDIS buckled beneath them, sending them all sprawling out on the ground.

"Oh well done you!" Ten sarcastically called from his position on the floor, gingerly helping Clara up for she had the luck to land on top of him.

Eight helped Rose up, his hand lingering on her elbow before releasing her.

"Well, let's go out and meet the neighbors!" Eleven called, tugging Clara along. Ten gave his older self a look that someone might give their puppy who wouldn't stop peeing on the carpet, but he followed him out. Rose and Eight were the last out of the TARDIS.

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, what in the name of sanity are you doing?" Eleven questioned darkly, getting quite close to the blonde woman.

"The countdown can only be halted at my personal command." Kate's doppleganger, or the real Kate, spoke up. "There's nothing you can do."

"Except make you both agree to halt it." Ten stated calmly, stepping forward and crossing his arms over his chest. Rose tilted her head and turned bright red when she heard Clara's snicker from behind her. Caught staring at the Doctor's bum in a dire situation, how embarrassing. She really had not grown much in a century.

"Not even for the three of you." Kate reaffirmed.

"You are about to murder millions of people," Eight spoke up softly.

"To save billions. How many times have you made that calculation?" Kate questioned back quickly. Rose was inclined to like Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, though that wasn't much of a surprise, she had really liked her father.

"Once. It turned me into the man I am now." Eleven answered, sounding ashamed and guilty. "Not even sure who that is anymore." Dark green eyes looked over at Rose, the only person he could meet the eyes of in the room.

"You tell yourself it's justified," Ten swallowed. "But it's a lie, because what I did that day was wrong." He came around the side of the table and leaned against it, his hands braced apart as he stared down the people in the rom.

"And because I got it wrong that day, I'm going to make you get it right." Eleven explained, and they both grabbed chairs, bringing them around to the head of the table. Rose nearly rolled her eyes when they, in tandem, put their feet up on the table, leaning make like they had all the time in the world.

"How?" Kate asked, which was a rather good question seeing as they had less than a minute to do so. They both crossed their arms over their chests, making quite the pair.

"Any second now, you're going to stop that countdown. Both of you, together." Ten said, as if it explained everything.

"And then you're going to negotiate the most perfect treaty of all time." Eleven continued.

"Safeguards all around." Ten added, looking towards his older self. "Keep it fair on both sides."

"And the key to the perfect negotiation-"

"-is not knowing what side you're on." They both kicked back from the table, stood up together and pulled out their sonics.

"So, for the next few hours, until we decide to let you out-" They flipped their sonics, and Rose barely managed to surprise her laughter. They just thought they were so impressive, both of them together.

"No one in this room will be able to remember if they're human-"

"-Or a Zygon." They leapt up onto the table, making the move quite graceful and aimed their sonics at the security camera looking device on the ceiling. There was a brilliant flash and Bad Wolf woke full, shaking off the effects of whatever that machine did. The Bad Wolf really did not like it when others attempted to mess with their memories.

"Cancel the detonation!" Both Kate's yelled at the same time, the countdown stopping at 5 seconds.

"Peace in our time." Everyone set off like it was a pre-determined script. The two Kates and their respected scientists paired up at the table, Ten and Eleven nearby and voicing their input whether anyone wanted to hear it or not. Eight stood and watched for a couple seconds before walking off, managing to find some tea of all things and setting himself up nearby. It wasn't long before Clara had wandered over to speak in quiet tones to him.

"It's quite lovely, isn't it?" The Moment was back to looking like a post-apocalyptic version of Rose. Rose didn't mind much, preferred to talking to herself than being reminded of her parents, or anyone else in her life. "Negotiations, coming to a peaceful agreement. No one needs to get hurt." Rose frowned, feeling the Bad Wolf stretch in her mind. Most of the time it was hard trying to communicate with the All Powerful Being inside her skull. The Bad Wolf, while being made from parts of a 19 year old human girl, did not think or feel in human terms. It didn't mean that the Bad Wolf didn't think or feel, much the opposite, but communication was difficult because they were so different, no matter they shared the same mind and body.

The same could be said for the TARDIS. She communicated much more often with the Doctor, but even the Doctor couldn't always interpret what she was trying to tell him, even after centuries spent together.

The Moment was like that, though she was trying far harder than the Bad Wolf or the TARDIS did to be more human, or more of a sentient life than a consciousness of a weapon. The small withdrawal of the Bad Wolf told Rose that she was on the right path.

"Sometimes peace can't be achieved, not like this at least." Rose would prefer all altercations to be settled through talking, she was quite good at talking, and the Doctor was even better at it. Though sometimes he found listening quite difficult, Rose was better at listening than talking. So Rose did what she did best, she listened.

"So you believe that some altercations can only be solved through violence? Through the total annihilation of billions of lives?" The Moment questioned her. She had Rose's face, but her speech and her emotions were completely different than Rose's.

Rose took a deep breath and tried to see what the Moment wanted her to see. What if one day she woke up and realized she was only a weapon? A weapon designed to wipe out the existence of anything in several galaxies?

The TARDIS was old, even before the Doctor had stolen her, she was fairly old, in the process of being decommissioned. The Bad Wolf was made from a 19 year old human girl, but mostly it was made up of an ageless entity. The Moment was young, not in the human sense or even in the Time Lord sense. The TARDIS was meant to travel, the Bad Wolf to protect, but the Moment was meant to destroy. And it did not want to do that.

Rose remembered her first Doctor, and his inability to take out an enemy if it meant hurting someone else in the crossfire. Even if that enemy was the daleks. He couldn't close the door if it meant losing Rose again, even if that choice meant a dalek would be free to roam the Earth. He couldn't shoot her when she stepped in front of that dalek. He couldn't press that lever and destroy half of Earth, even if it meant saving the other half and the rest of the universe from the new dalek threat on Satellite Five. When Rose was 19 she would have fully agreed with the Doctor. She never would have pressed that lever, she never would have sacrificed a small group of people to save many more.

But Rose wasn't 19 anymore, and she could see the Moment's recognition that it had chosen the wrong companion to try and talk the Doctor out of using it to stop the Time War. But the long stretch of the Bad Wolf meant it wasn't over yet, the Moment had something else planned.

The awakened Bad Wolf in her mind meant the jump from one place to another wasn't as jarring. Just a bit of dizziness, a weakening of her knees, and she was fine again. Standing in the shack, with the young Doctor, and the Moment still using Rose's image.

"Well, you wanted a big red button." The Moment was saying to the Doctor, who was standing in front of the physical form of the Moment. There was a rather large red button now protruding from the box. "One big bang. No more Time Lords, no more Daleks, no more Rose Tyler. Are you sure?" Eight was staring at Rose, the mostly-human version, with horror in his eyes.

"I was sure when I came in here. There is no other way." He spoke as if in apology to Rose, though she couldn't blame him. He wasn't the the one who dragged her here.

"You've seen the men you will become." The Moment said, as if they were something to be ashamed of. Rose stood up straighter, pulled the Bad Wolf closer to the forefront of her mind, let her own anger intermingle with the Bad Wolfs.

"They were quite extraordinary, if I do say so myself." Eight spoke softly, his humor still not completely gone.

"You always have a choice." The Moment looked over at Rose, drawing Eight's attention back to her. Once again her life was in his hands, but as it was with each other time, Rose decided to make that decision easier for him. She moved next to him, not allowing for any space as she faced the red button. "You do not have to do this." The Moment sounded panicked now.

Rose entwined her fingers with the Doctor's, looked up at him and smiled the best she could. She was afraid, of course she was. She had no idea what it would be like, but she had a guess. Each planet caught in the wave of the Moment had burned. So yes, she had a pretty good idea of how it would go, but she would not allow him to see how afraid she was.

The Doctor bent down, pressing a soft kiss to Rose's forehead. Rose closed her eyes, tried not to stiffen when she felt him shift just slightly, felt his free hand move towards the Moment. Rose took a deep breath, moving closer and burying her face against the leather jacket.

"It's alright Doctor."

_I'm so glad we met._

_I wouldn't change it for the world._

_I love you._


End file.
